Project Goliath
by Anonymous Void
Summary: What begins as a routine covert op takes an unexpected twist as Duo finds himself eluding both friend and enemy as he seeks to find the answers of Project Goliath.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Haven't posted anything in this fandom for a while but I'm back for another go. To be honest, this story has been slow going, there are a couple things I'm not completely satisfied with. Nevertheless, it's a story I've been wanting to tell and while things may seem OOC for a bit, I hope that I correct that over time. Lot of exposition in this chapter, lot of background, but the next couple of chapters will heat things up a bit. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Warning: language

Chapter 1

Have you ever woken up one day and found that you completely hated your life? Not like in that teenage angst way where you were a prick who thought the world revolved around you and only you. No, more like you're an adult who wakes up, dreading the work day ahead, and finally having the epiphany that your life is not how you wanted it to be. You hate every single minute you have to breathe, hate having to pretend to be nice to the guys at the office who you have great dislike towards, and lastly you utterly loathe what it is you have to do for a paycheck at the end of the month.

Yeah, that's how Duo felt every day when he woke up from blissful slumber.

Ah, but where can such great hate come from without it being explained in an exposition that sums up everything in less than two minutes? In Duo's case though, as he mournfully left the warm cocoon of bedsheets, it was practically every day since he turned eighteen.

At this point in his life, you wouldn't think he had done much at all. That's where you'd be wrong. By the time he was sixteen, he was a war veteran, a pilot of an awesome, ass-kicking Mobile Suit known as a Gundam, survivor of poverty, disease, and massacres, a decent scrapyard owner and salvager, and, as the cherry on top of it all, a full time agent of the last military force in the solar system, the Preventers.

Put that all on a resume and he'd look like a fabulous applicant, wouldn't he? Well, maybe half of that stuff; some of it was to serve the only purpose of boosting his ego.

But he bets you're wondering something. Since everybody knows that there were four other Gundam pilots who also did some ass-kicking during the last couple of wars and revolutions, aren't they all comrades who are united to preserve the fragile peace that had taken hold?

Give him a moment to spit out the mouthful of toothpaste so that he can laugh his ass off at such a concept. No sense messing up the mirror or getting it all over his toothbrush. There, now it was safe. Cue gut-tearing laugh track.

By now, as you have guessed, the answer to that previous question is a resounding "no."

Why? You must be asking yourself. Why is he not bound mind and soul to these fellow soldiers who risked everything to bring peace not only to the Colonies from which they all hail from but to the entire planet Earth?

Duo figured that it started sometime after a certain incident in A.C. 197. He had forgotten the details of everything that had occurred early that year but the gist of it was that some armed terrorists took over the castle in the Sanc Kingdom, taking hostages of quite a few politicians and dignitaries, which also happened to include one Vice Foreign Minister Darlian. Or was it Peacecraft now? She changed her last name so many times that he had forgotten which one she was using currently.

Anyway, the douchebags had given some of the usual demands: free their imprisoned brothers, large amount of ransom, blah blah blah, or else they'd nuke the castle and everything in the Kingdom. How they got their hands on a nuclear device was anyone's guess at that point. He and the other pilots get called in to resolve the situation and long story short, they do.

It's the aftermath of that event that brings Duo to this point in time where he's finishing up tying his boots and heading for the door, grabbing the standard issued jacket that all Preventer agents were required to have. It was a dress code of sorts, a uniform that made them stick out and identified them with the public.

After those rabble-rousers were sent away to a prison far, far away, Duo had returned to the L2 Colony in which he had made his home. He liked having a home he could go back to, you know? He also liked the quiet life though early on he had found that he could only live such a life in measured quantities. Deep inside of him, there was a part of him that craved the action, the unpredictability, and the overall excitement that came with being a Gundam pilot.

He liked blowing stuff up. He liked pulling the trigger on a gun and shooting a fuck-you package of lead at anyone who pissed him off. He liked the running, the evading, and activity that came with such things but it was the adrenaline rush that came with the excitement that he so enjoyed.

Once you've experienced it, there's no going back. He figured it was a part of him he could control, giving measured dosages now and again to contain it until the next time. That terrorist-hostage situation had been such a dose for him and he left satisfied. Why go out on another mission if he didn't need anymore?

Someone seemed to have disagreed with that, though he had never found out who. A couple months after the terrorist incident, he got another call from Wufei, requesting his particular services.

He'd declined, originally, but after some thought had caved it. After that, he found he was starting to get more calls from the Preventers than he ever had before, and in shorter and shorter intervals.

By this time he was eighteen in good ol' A.C. 198, he had gotten an invite to come on down to Preventer HQ.

In hindsight, he should have refused from the beginning. The end-of-the-world scenarios, he could tolerate if not accept. Those things tended to happen, even if the people behind them tended to be pussies who thought themselves high and mighty just because they had a gun on them.

But really, covert operations? Spy missions? Preemptive sabotage? Before he had known it, he was up to his elbows in this kind of shit and by the time he had turned eighteen, the Preventers had wanted him as a full time employee. Of course, he had been just speculating about his age, eighteen. He didn't really know what his birthday really was so had picked one at random which seemed to feel right. He could have been seventeen for all he knew.

Back to the story, he had ended up being impressed into the ranks. He had dreaded the call he had to make to his business partner, Hilde, a firecracker of a girl he had met during the previously mentioned wars, and tell her that he wasn't coming back to L2 anymore. Explaining the situation, he found her getting pissed off not at him but at the government but he had to be quick to calm her down.

No sense provoking her to starting her own terrorist cell. That was the last thing any of them needed. And he would hate to have to be the one to put a bullet in her. Just because she once aimed a gun at him didn't mean he had to return the favor.

A couple years later and it didn't matter anymore. He hadn't been the only one to find himself in this position. Only Trowa and Quatre had been "persuaded" to join like he had been but he found that he was the only one who seemed to resent it.

Trowa, according to what he had learned later, had just shrugged and said fine. He'd miss the circus but would use his vacation time to take care of that matter. He'd also demanded a lot of vacation time if you were wondering. Whether they gave it to him or not, Duo did not know.

As for Quatre, he was the only one who wasn't a full time. Thanks to his standing as a Winner and just how big the family business was, he could afford to set the terms of his employment. And who was the government to tell a member of the Winner family what they could or could not do? About once every two weeks, for about three days, Quatre would leave to take care of business at Winner Enterprises, Inc., sign what he needed to sign, attend meetings that he had to attend and other executive stuff like that. While he claimed only to be part time, Duo found that Quatre tended to stay at Preventer HQ more than he did at home.

The only other two pilots, Wufei and Heero, were something else altogether. Wufei had willingly joined as a full time member when the group was first started so no sympathy would be found there. Heero, while a Preventer by name, was more like Relena's full time bodyguard. So yeah, the poster boy of Gundam pilots and mental issues wasn't at the office, at all.

So there was only four of them, Duo mused as he maneuvered his way through traffic, heading for the nondescript building that few would ever associate to be HQ. Last he heard, it had been Une's idea to have two buildings serve as HQ, both connected by a parking garage. One building would be plain looking, which is where the real business of the organization would be done and the other flamboyantly designed so that if some grudging upstarts wanted to bomb them, they'd go for that one.

Smart idea, Duo supposed as he turned into the parking garage. Give everybody the idea that you were not concerned with being open with the public while literally hiding everything in your shadow. Yes, when the sun was just right, the taller and more gaudy of the two buildings cast its shadow over the other, making the previous analogy literal.

Finding his usual space, he parked and shut down the car, sighing as he psyched himself for another day in the trenches. He really, really hated this. The fact that he had spent the entire time from waking up to getting here telling the story of how far things had come from A.C. 197 to now was just so depressing to him.

It was like he did it for some faceless audience that didn't exist and he would never meet. Who cared about his misery so long as this peace was upheld?

Yeah, he understood why people wanted to keep it this time. He really did. He fought for it after all. But why did he have to continue sacrificing for it? Couldn't the rest of the world do it? Well, whatever, he had to do his community service for the rest of his life. He had blown up all that shit and—well hello. He squinted as his rearview mirror, his sharp eyes picking out a shape.

The shape was obviously a person but from the way they were huddled, he could tell that this person was obviously hiding. He had a pretty good idea what they were doing as this hadn't been the first time he had come across this. Well, best to check it out, just in case it was really a threat though he doubted it was.

He slipped out through the passenger side of his vehicle instead of the driver's side. The person was to his left and he wanted to keep some cover for the moment until he could confirm his suspicions. He slipped around a couple neighboring cars and over to the next row, dashing across the open area that cars drove up and down on to find other parking spaces.

Peeking around the cars, he eventually spotted the person he had seen through his mirror and his face morphed into an expression of amusement. Oh, it was _her_ again. This was going to be, what, the tenth time he caught her in here and would have to report her to security? If there wasn't such anti-gun sentiment out there, he could have put an end to her a long time ago. Seriously, lady, you weren't going to find some kind of scoop or story in the parking garage of the Preventers.

Crouching behind her, he turned his gaze in the same direction she was looking, making sure to keep her in his peripheral. Mischievously, he let a couple minutes past before alerting her to his presence. The shock scare she was going to get was always worth it.

"Running late?" he asked softly, not bothering to hide the small grin that was forming on his face.

"Damn right he is," the woman answered him. "How long does it take to get out of a car?"

"Less than a minute, two if you're in no hurry," he answered her calmly.

He saw her tense and slowly turn to face him, and man was her expression totally worth it.

"Any good reason why you're in here, again?" he asked. "Please, try to give a creative excuse Miss. Carrey. They are the highlight of my day."

Jessica Carrey was quite the youthful and attractive woman but her persistence in trying to uncover some dirt on anybody whom she had her investigative sights on had really taken away any appeal she had. The slightly tanned skin, the long blonde hair with brown highlights, and the clear blue eyes that invited you to spill your guts was not a bad combination but too much exposure took away their novelty.

"Care to give me something for my next article?" Jessica Carrey asked him, recovering quickly, standing up from her crouch. Duo followed after her, relaxing his body but not his tongue. Reporters, nothing was ever off the record with them.

"How about 'young adult woman forcefully escorted off Preventer property by security,'" he said dryly. "Pack it up and go. "I'll give you a minute headstart before I let the guys at the front desk know about you."

"Don't be like that," she pouted at him. "I have a deadline and I haven't gotten anything! Just one little tidbit? Please?"

"You got fifty seconds," he replied. "Stop sneaking in here already." He wasn't about to mention the talk of having a restraining order put on her. That would go over well when it came out in tomorrow's paper. He could see the headline now and everything. PREVENTERS RESTRICT FREE PRESS! That'll go over like pneumonia in the intensive care ward.

"Oh come on!" she whined after him as he moved around her, heading back to his car.

Opening the driver side this time, he reached in and took out his phone, making a show of opening it and dialing a number. He didn't send it or anything as he heard the sound of high heels scurrying away. She still had about thirty-five seconds and if there was something he wasn't, it was a liar. He'd give her the time he promised but he was still going to call security. They knew the routine by now.

Odd how it was only him who kept encountering her. Maybe she had had less than friendly calls with the other guys. Yeah, that was probably it. Maybe he needed to start getting assertive.

* * *

><p>Office. Breakroom. Office. Office. Cubicle. Cubicle. Pathway. And down the pathway we go. Alright, cubicle one, cubicle two, cubicle three, four, five, six…<p>

Here we are. Good ol' cubicle number eight. His home away from home smack dab in the middle of purgatory. Sigh, great to be back. Note the sarcasm. He let himself slump into the wheelie chair that all work drones seemed to be issued no matter where they worked and started up the computer than he had turned off only the night before. Shrugging off the standard issue Preventers jacket, he put in his password and waited for the computer to upload.

While waiting for the crappy thing to load, he looked over at the monthly schedule he had pinned on the wall. Oh goodie, it was a paperwork day. Write up reports on some of the newbies that were going through bootcamp and give recommendations. Right. Didn't it used to be that you were just plopped into the middle of a war and told to shoot the other guys and don't get shot yourself? Wait, that was when drafts were still in effect. Never mind.

He paused, the scent of roasted coffee beans, Hawaiian roasted to be precise, wafted into his nostrils and growing stronger by the second. Waiting for only a second more to confirm that indeed someone was approaching, he got back to work, writing down the name of the first recruit on the standard issue report form, double checking to make sure he got the spelling right.

Heat radiated close by and the smell of coffee beans grew stronger, sure signs that someone was offering him a cup of coffee. He held a hand up, shaking it in the negative. He had woken up in a bad mood this morning and he didn't think a little thing like coffee was going to get him out of the funk. Sure the caffeine would be welcomed but he was not in the mood for it today.

Instead, he said out loud, "Found that stalker in the garage again. Does anybody know how she keeps getting in?"

"Not at all," a light and friendly voice replied. Ah, he should have known it was Quatre. Only Quatre was polite enough to not block any dim light that was shining at him. That, and the fact that he could hear the soft shuffle that was his footsteps. If it had been Wufei, he would have been able to feel his footsteps while with Trowa you couldn't hear or feel them. "But you know reporters. Anything for a scoop that will make them their careers."

"Think she'll try something different?" he grumbled as he made another mark on the report sheet. "It's obvious that the approach she's using is not working."

"The definition of insanity, Duo. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." There was a small chuckle in there somewhere but Duo did not join in. Let's just say that his humor had dried up a while ago.

"Then someone should commit her. Or me," he added. "Get me out of having to do these performance reviews."

"Anything to get out of work, eh?" Yeah, yeah, treat it like a joke, Quatre. If only you knew how serious he was. "You know, if you're feeling stressed, you could go out with the guys and me for a drink. I'd pay for it."

Free drinks, eh? A kind offer but one he had turned down time and again. Sure, Quatre was the sole pilot whom he liked (platonically speaking) but despite that, he'd rather keep their relationship professional. If you want to know why, he thought he had already explained that in his exposition. Still, it didn't make him feel any less guilty with knowledge that he was going to have to let down that hopeful look Quatre was giving him.

"You're not busy tonight, are you?" he heard the blond ask him, not really taking the hint that he was going to turn the invite down. Or maybe he had taken the hint but wanted to push him a bit, see if it might provoke him into accepting.

He had never accepted one yet but that didn't mean Quatre didn't quit trying. Props for the guy for his determination. Most people would have given up on him by now but that was Quatre for you.

"Loaded," he replied. "I got to drive home and make myself some TV dinner, probably frozen through by now, and watch some mind numbing TV shows until I pass out from sheer boredom. I've had this thing scheduled for the past few weeks and I don't think I'd be able to cancel at the last minute."

He could hear the amusement in Quatre's reply, though whether or not he caught some of the sarcasm, Duo could not say. "Sounds like you're really busy. Still, if you could try, maybe you could pencil us in for an hour or two. You'd still be able to get back for that frozen dinner and the networks will more than likely be showing reruns. Keep that in mind, okay?"

Still trying and still hoping. Once again, he had to say it, that was Quatre for you. Now that he thought about it, perhaps Quatre himself was a little insane. Doing the same thing over again, asking him to go out with him and the guys for social drinking, and hoping that he'll accept when he never has before. Expecting a different outcome than the one that always happened. Yep, that went with that definition.

By now, Quatre had left, leaving him all to his lonesome. That sat well with him; he wasn't in a very social mood right now. Sighing, he let his hands fall into his lap. He hadn't been in a social mood in two years, not since he had turned eighteen. Christ, what was happening to him? Usually he was more upbeat than this. In fact, there had been times in the past where he had talk to himself just to hear his own voice.

Was he making himself depressed over this shit? Probably but then again, he had never wanted to be in this situation before. He hadn't wanted to be a full-time Preventer agent, subject to the whims of someone else who now had more control over his life than even he did. And he was taking his frustrations out on the other guys. Not fair to a couple of them, he would admit, but then again, there were times when he felt like he was on the outside.

Yes, he had teamed up with them before, sometimes one of them, sometimes all of them at the same time, but he had always felt that there had been something between him and them, something that prevented him from fully wanting to be one of the group.

He felt it at fifteen, or what he assumed was fifteen, and he still felt it now.

Funny. He fought to give peace to the world and the Colonies but he couldn't get peace of mind for himself. Was that the price he paid when he accepted G's deal to steal the Deathscythe?

Whatever. He brought his hands up, pushing aside the previous performance review and moving on to the next. He wasn't being paid to think anymore, just do what he was told like a dog on a leash.

As he was in the middle of writing down the second recruit's name, his phone rang, causing him to press too hard on his pen and make an unsightly mark on the report sheet. Fucking perfect.

Extending an arm out, he snatched up the phone, about to say his own name before he stopped himself. That's right, certified Preventer agents didn't respond to calls, whether they were apart of the Preventers or not, with their real names. He had called himself so many names by now that he couldn't keep track of them anymore.

"Agent Nightmare," he stated into the receiver, rolling his eyes at the codename. Just because he wore black and called himself Death every once in a while didn't mean they had to stick him with such an obvious name like that.

He frowned at the official voice on the other end. An official voice that had a feminine tint to it. Oh, he recognized who it was. What did the boss lady want with him now? He hadn't been on any assignments recently. Nothing to complain about or stick to him…unless he was about to get another one.

"Be there in a minute," he said into the phone, hanging it up as he got out of his chair. Slinging the jacket onto his shoulders, he trudged out of the cubicle, heading towards Conference Room 1. It was the only conference room where he was given any assignments and he didn't need anyone to tell him that was where he needed to go.

Goddamn predictability.

* * *

><p>Conference Room 1 was more like a war room you'd find in a cheesy B-movie but that was only when the lights were off. Most of the time the lights were on so you not only saw the monitors that tended to show physical layouts that were important to upcoming missions but also the large conference table that looked relatively normal.<p>

When he had first seen it, Duo had expected some sort of hologram project fitted right in the center of the large piece of furniture but was sorely disappointed when such was not the case. Yeah, go ahead and ruin the surreal experience he was going for why don't you.

Had he been a few years younger (damn that made him feel old), he would have been one of the last ones here and the loudest to boot. Instead, he was literally the first person here and the quietest. How far had he fallen?

The second person to arrive was none other than the boss lady herself, Director Une. Now, he'll be the first to say this: he preferred her without the buns. No really, that old hairdo with the twin buns made her so much more severe and a bit scary to tell the truth. At least with her hair down, she looked slightly more approachable but only slightly.

She was still pretty severe though it was not often that she had to raise her voice to express it.

He greeted her with a nod, not bothering to say anything. As a general rule, he preferred to say the most minimal with her because deep down, he was still a little afraid of her. All the stories he had heard of what she was able to do, from threatening to blow up a Colony to her personality splitting, sheesh. She wasn't even a Gundam pilot and she still could compete with them for larger amounts of mental problems.

All he got was a nod back as she took her seat at the head of the table, taking out the folders and document that she would need for this shindig. For a moment, he wondered what it was that he was going to be in store for this time. Did it require sneaking in? A quick in-and-out with some B and E added to the mix? Or was it a long-term infiltration to sabotage some up and coming rebel group before they could reach their prime?

Oh, there were so many to choose from.

Silence reigned for a few moments before the door to the conference room opened again, only this time there was some chatting and more than one person entering. Had to be the other three pilots. Wufei's voice was there, answering or commenting about something that more than likely came from Quatre. Trowa, even now, wasn't that much of a talker but man when he spoke, you listened.

He locked eyes with the more taciturn of the three, first with Wufei and then with Trowa. Neither seemed surprised he had beat them here nor did they expect to hear him greet them. Quatre, always trying Quatre, sent him a small smile which he reciprocated with a nod. He swore, he could see the corner of Quatre's mouth twitch when he didn't get more than that.

Wow, he was really a trying person, wasn't he?

He pulled his gaze away from the only blond in the room and towards Une, watching as the woman in charge traded looks with each and every one of them. Probably taking a headcount, he supposed. Unless she was expecting someone else, then they were all here.

"Agents," she greeted, turning her gaze down towards the folders and documents that she had taken out earlier. "I hope that you are all in good health."

Uh oh. He could tell where this was going now just by the words she used. A new assignment had come up. Oh, he wondered what it was this time.

"For the most part, I believe we are," Quatre told her politely. "Has something come up?"

"Indeed, something has," Une replied, agreeing with the blond's assessment. "During a recent operation, two of our agents came across something that I found needed to be checked on immediately."

"What is it this time?" Wufei asked though Duo had the feeling he wanted to demand instead. The Chinese pilot had never been one for patience, especially when something important had come up.

"There's a story behind this one so I ask ahead of time for your patience," Une stated, once again taking them all in. Duo folded his arms over his chest, waiting for her to go on. "A few days ago, we instigated a raid on the Kamchatka peninsula where we found a large cache of arms being distributed to various parties on Earth. This time around, we found that someone had made a directory where the arms were going and it was decided that we would follow up on them, see what came up.

"Already, we have found links with certain rebellious factions, most of which are stationed in the Russian provinces. There was an exception, though, and it is this exception that I have called you all here. One of the containers of arms found was selected to go to an old Alliance base."

"Weren't all those closed down by the end of the Eve Wars?" Quatre asked, forgetting that she had asked for them to keep quiet.

"I was about to get to that," Une told him calmly. "I sent two of our agents to further investigate and they found some activity occurring. Satellite imaging has confirmed that there are people there but what they are doing, at this point we do not know. For the past couple of days, we have been observing what is going on but nothing of substance has seemed to come out of it."

Ah, he was beginning to figure out where this was going. Peeking at the others, Duo figured that the others had also come to the same conclusion as he had. At least they were on the same page.

"So what are we going to do?" Wufei asked. "Are there any procedures that you would like us to observe or do we have free reign?"

"Right now, I do not want to let anyone inside that base know that we are aware of them," Une stated. "However, I also want to know what it is that they are up to. What are they doing that would require military weapons and ammunition, and lastly, who they are."

"So your boys haven't found out anything new, is that it?" he asked, putting his two cents into this.

"Only that people go in and rarely do they leave," Une explained seriously. "Since this is a recon mission, I want the smallest amount of destruction necessary so my recommendations would be that two of you infiltrate while the others wait on stand-by, providing cover only if things get out of hand."

"We understand," Quatre nodded. "We can take it from here."

"I would like to stay and see what you come up with," Une told him.

"Oh? Why's that?" the blond asked curiously.

"Some of the instructors down in recruitment and training are curious about how former Gundam pilots strategize and produce, and I quote, 'incredible' results. That and I want to play this one close to the chest. There's no sense letting something that may only be a pebble become a mountain."

"Fair enough," Quatre replied, turning towards the rest of them. "We're going to need blueprints and a layout of the area. Depending on those, we'll figure out who gets to bite the bullet and go in."

"Or we could just agree that Nightmare and I will be the ones," Trowa said, speaking up for the first time. "Both of us have the skills to go in and out in a relatively short amount of time."

"I want to know about anything that might demand different expertise before making such a determination," Quatre responded. "For all we know right now, Agent Night may be what we need."

"I believe we're only trying to find out what's going on, not blow the place up," Trowa returned. With a glance towards Wufei, he added, "No offense."

"None taken, Forest" Wufei said, not at all insulted.

Ah, to hear those awful codenames again. At least with the other guys, they got ones that didn't immediately make you think of them.

"These are the satellite images," Une interrupted the slight banter as she slid the printed colored images over to them. From his vantage, Duo could see that each one captured the facility at different views. Yes they were all from above but some of them were zoomed in more than others.

"Odd," Trowa commented as he picked up one of the prints. "They have part of the perimeter on the lake."

"Perhaps this base dealt with marine-type weapons," Wufei commented as took another of the prints. "A lake isn't the most reliable geographical feature to use as a defensive barrier."

"No, I mean they built a wall through the lake," Trowa corrected as he pushed the picture he had over to Wufei. "They've cornered off a portion of it and according to the imaging, it's the shallow part. Fifteen feet deep at least. The fact that they even build a wall like this tells me that whoever built this did not intend to use the lake for any purpose."

"That is curious," Quatre agreed, looking at a print that had more detail than the one Trowa had looked at. "The entire perimeter is walled off. It looks more like a prison than any kind of military base that I've ever heard of."

"So then we'll have to think like we're breaking into a prison instead of a base," Duo pointed out, feeling he had to contribute. "If we figure how we could try to break out of this place, we reverse it so that we break in instead."

"I think there's more to it than that," Quatre replied, his brow creasing. "We can't destroy anything or else that would alert everyone there that we are trying to get in."

"In my experience, breaking into the compound is the easy part. It's getting past the walls that we have a problem," Duo argued. Taking a good look at one of the prints, he said, "Hey, isn't that the front gate right there?"

"Sneaking in through the front, huh?" Trowa said, looking thoughtful. Looking over at Une, he asked, "How often do vehicles go through that gate?"

"Too few," Une answered. "There's not enough traffic going through."

"So there's a good chance they'll be able to recognize the drivers by sight," Quatre murmured. "Still, is there a usual time when any trucks enter? Perhaps we could still intercept one and plant someone on it."

"How heavily guarded is the gate?" Wufei asked. "If there are one or two guards, perhaps we can still sneak around them or at least knock them out long enough. Since there is low traffic going in and out of the base, there's probably not a lot of attention there."

This was almost like the old days. Everybody pitching in, throwing ideas around before a solid plan was decided on. Yeah they were missing someone but as long as they had the right intel, the four of them could still work some magic.

In the meantime, Duo would resign himself to the fact that he wasn't going to be having a frozen TV dinner tonight.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: Halfway through this chapter would have made a great place to stop but I decided to put more in because I felt it wasn't long enough. Not really wowed by the "action" in this chapter and it was just something else to drill in how out of this fandom I am. Didn't feel the usual connection I have with the characters but hopefully as time progresses I'll get better. Enough of my bitching, enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Warning: language, violence, death

Chapter 2

The cool chill of night always preceded the thrill of a covert in-and-out.

If it wasn't obvious by now, it was him and Trowa who had been selected to go in and raid the compound for anything that might be vitally important. Quatre and Wufei would be playing support/backup in case shit hit the fan but really, Duo couldn't see anything going wrong with this one.

Sure it was quite a mental exercise trying to figure out how to get into the place but it had been decided that they would go in through the front. The intel from the front lines had told them that the gate wasn't heavily guarded, only a couple of guards but twice during the night, one of the guards would be relieved. It was a ten minute gap when one of the guards would leave, leaving only one guard behind to man the gate, until the replacement arrived.

More than enough time for guys like them to slip in without notice. On the off chance, they would take a little tranquilizer with them. A bad caliber guard tended to fall asleep at post once in a while. What was to say he wouldn't fall asleep during that ten minute gap?

Philosophical debates aside, it was almost go time. Only a minute ago, they had gotten word that the next transport was coming in. It was close to the guard changing time so this might be a little tight.

The plan they were using? When one of the guards opened the gate, they'd sneak in between the truck and guard booth. Now, you're probably wondering where the shift change came into play. Well, it just so happened that the truck would arrive right smack dab in the middle of guard change. Thanks to a few "obstacles" they had placed, the truck would not make it to the compound at its appointed time. The guards seemed practically religious with their shifts, specifically on when they ended.

Odds were the guard whose shift ended would leave before the truck arrived, one less set of eyes watching as the truck arrived. With only one guard in the booth, they would literally sneak in under his nose, provided the truck driver didn't spot them through the sideview mirrors.

So yeah, luck had a huge part in this. Hopefully luck would be a lady tonight.

Once they were in, they would go their separate ways. One would make their way to a database and try to copy whatever information they could while the other took over security. The only problem with that plan was that they had to find both of these stations first and the intel they were able to get wasn't definitive enough. The blueprints they had looked at only vaguely pointed out a general area where the security center was but other than that, nothing. Once inside they would be working blind.

Not a problem. They were used to going into things blind. The only question would be who was doing what. A game of rock, paper, scissors solved that; Duo had security while Trowa had to copy the data.

Let's all hope no one gets shot doing this.

Throwing a look back at Trowa, asking nonverbally if the other was ready, Duo returned his sight back to the guard booth. Two guards could be easily seen manning it and both appeared to be bored out of their mind. Not the best looking guards he had even seen but it wouldn't do to underestimate them. For all he knew, they were just putting on an act of looking bored (though he highly doubted that) just to fake them out and they were actually the most alert guards on the planet.

Right on time, one of the guards began to exit the booth, stopping as his partner said something to him. Looked like there was some kind of disagreement. Looked like one of the guards didn't want to be left alone here. A couple minutes later the guard ending up leaving, everything going according to plan.

Now to wait for the—oh, there it was. Was it just him or were things going too well for them?

Mustn't jinx them yet. It could still fall apart at this point.

As the truck drew closer and closer to the front gate, the two agents stealthily snuck from their position down to the guard booth. They came to a stop right behind it, waiting for the truck to stop in front of the gate before doing anything else.

Already, Duo was starting to feel that familiar rush, the very one that gave him a thrill from doing something incredibly dangerous. Going into places where he wasn't supposed to be tended to do that to him.

_Brace yourselves guys; our delivery man is almost at checkpoint alpha. Be ready to move._

Duo hurriedly placed his hand over an ear where a radio transmitter was placed. It sounded too loud to him, making him worry than anyone with normal hearing could hear it. Unfortunately this was the lowest setting and while he was told that no one other than himself would be able to hear anything from it, it still made him nervous.

He had broken into places before from nailed up buildings to hospitals to bakeries all over the L2 Cluster. You didn't talk if you thought people were around and if you had to, it was always in a whisper. Until he "joined" the Preventers, he didn't have to use transmitters or earpieces like these before.

"We're about to make interception and incursion," Trowa said softly back, pressing on a small button on the transmitter. Goddamn thing was a miniature walkie-talkie. "After that, no radio contact from the outside in case our signals get picked up."

_Roger that. You and Nightmare be careful in there._

Thank God or whatever deity out there that was listening. Talking during one of these assignments always got him paranoid. Just because he was paranoid that people here were going to try and shoot at him if they caught sight of him didn't mean that they weren't going to.

Now, he may not have like his comrades but he trusted them to watch his back nonetheless. Remember, he only allowed a professional relationship.

He could hear the purr of the truck engine as the truck came to a stop in front of the gate, the guard coming out to chat with the driver. Not surprising; the guard was probably a bit ticked off that the guy finally "choose" to show up when he was the only one manning the booth.

Duo threw another glance at Trowa, making sure the other was ready. Then, as the guard returned to the booth, he and Trowa made their move. They threaded between the truck and the guard booth, crouching close to the ground so that they snuck beneath the window that the guard could see through.

There was a loud hiss and slowly the gate began to open. Once the opening was large enough, the truck began coasting through, the driver unaware of the two guests who were using the side of his truck as cover. Passing through the gate, Duo pulled down on the black ski mask that he had on top of his head so that none of his pale and easily visible skin was displayed

And then they were in.

Now they were at the point where there black-colored clothes and gear came into play. A simple camouflage but always an effective one for night missions. They were going to have to make their way to the east side of the compound. According to the blueprints, there should be an entrance to the air vents there which was their ticket into the compound itself.

Signaling to Trowa with some hand gestures, Duo took the lead, stealing off into the darkness.

* * *

><p>Duo had always felt comfortable in small spaces, in particular small spaces that were hidden from the human eye.<p>

When running couldn't get you anywhere, hiding was always the next best option you had. However, just hiding could only get you so far. Sometimes, you had to have a little niche located in just the right place that you could disappear into and no one would find you.

"How far I've come, eh?" Duo muttered to himself, his lips curved into a small smile. From a streetrat eking just enough to survive to a Preventer agent sneaking around a deathtrap of a base. If only Solo could see him now, the other would probably give a chuckle before telling him to deal with it.

Good times.

Indeed, an air vent qualified as a small space and this was where Duo found himself in his element. Dark, dank, and cramped, that was where he was able to work best. He pushed himself further down the vents, using his lower arms to pull and his knees to push, sliding them against the thin metal.

If you were careful, you could get around without a sound. It was when you rushed that you made all those thudding sounds that always attracted trouble. He supposed it was a good thing he was in the lead, Trowa literally at his rear.

He had given thought to ripping one, just to see if he could shake the usually unflappable Trowa but decided against it. No sense alerting the base due to a foul smell and have them bring up charges of detonating a chemical weapon.

You'd be surprised how many times he had been told that his colon should be outlawed as a WMD.

Coming across an opening in the vents, thin, wire bars covering it, Duo stopped them so that he could tell if there was anyone about. This was a stealth mission and all precautions to keep their presence a secret would be needed.

He pressed his ear close to the opening, listening for the telltale signs of footsteps or even just a human voice. He heard a mumble but couldn't tell from where it originated. Turned out he didn't have to as the mumble grew louder and a second one joined it. On top of that, there were clinks similar to a heel meeting with a metal surface. Strange but the pattern was similar to a gait.

Lifting his head back from the grated opening, he froze as someone passed below and then out of his sight. He controlled his breathing, refusing to let it give him away.

He waited for a moment, making sure that they weren't discovered or heard for that matter. Letting his breathing ease, he made his way over the grate, knowing that that was not going to be their point of exit. Up ahead there should be some kind of fork in the vents and that would be where they would split up.

A few minutes' worth of crawling and one stop for guard traffic later, they found their fork. Knowing where they needed to go already, that is if those blueprints were reliable, Duo continued straight ahead while Trowa took a right. They were both on their own now.

Knowing that Trowa would need all the eyes he could get in this place, Duo hasten his crawl by a margin. They had both agreed that Trowa would remain in the vents until Duo gave him the go ahead through their transmitters and not a second less than that.

He had, what, fifty feet left before he made his exit? He could feel his heart pounding in his chest at the anxiety he was feeling. Paranoia would be his friend here, at least until Trowa got impatient. That wouldn't be a problem because that guy had the patience of a fucking saint, he swore.

About thirty minutes later, he reached his checkpoint and came to a stop. Pausing to listen for any sounds, he waited until he felt it was safe enough to go to work, pulling out a small screwdriver from his belt.

The grating had to be removed first and he had bypassed many others enough to know they were screwed in. Fortunately for him, whoever built this place had screwed up; the screwheads were actually inside the vents instead of outside. How would they be able to maintain the air vents if they couldn't remove the gratings? Really.

Pushing his contempt for the architect aside, he worked quickly, getting a good grip on the grating itself once two screws were out so that it wouldn't fall out and clatter on the floor below. That would have given a sign to everyone that someone else was here. The last thing they needed.

Once the last screw was out, he carefully lifted the grate up and slid it further up the vent. That accomplished, he didn't get ready to exit just yet. Pulling a small mirror out, he held it close to the opened vent and used it to peer up and down the hallway first. To the left he could see someone just exit the hallway and to the right no one. Everything looked clear.

Tucking the mirror away, he maneuvered around so that he left the vent feet first. He didn't drop to the floor just yet, making sure to pull the grating over the opening so that no one would see another obvious sign that there was an intruder. You had to pick up after yourself and not leave a mess if you were trying to sneak around a place without permission.

Letting himself drop quietly to the floor, he didn't move from the crouch he had landed in. There were something odd about this place; the floor and walls didn't look right to him. Yeah, they were gray but it wasn't the type of gray you found with concrete. Quickly he rapped on the floor with his knuckles, jerking back almost immediately.

This place was made of metal! The floor, the walls, everything! Even the doors and beside a couple that he could see were electronic keypads and not the kind you typically found on Earth. The only place you found anything like this was up on a Colony! So what was this compound doing looking like this? Something was up but whatever it was, he couldn't figure it out.

Then again, that was what he was here for: to find out what was up.

Pulling out the mirror again, he snuck towards the nearest corner, peeking the small piece of glass out so that he could see around and down the intersecting hallway. Guards down that way but none looking in his direction. Wait, make that _a_ guard. One was leaving, another shift change perhaps? Like their counterparts outside, they didn't seem to be on high alert.

Still, the guy was in the middle of a hallway and quite a ways away. It was not going to be easy sneaking up on him. Another thought occurring to him, he inspected for security cameras that might be around, cursing himself for not thinking about those in the first place. It was a rookie mistake like that that got you caught.

Luck was a lady tonight, it seemed. How lucky was he that he had exited into a camera-free hallway? …unless they weren't using the standard, out-in-the-open cameras like they used to do in the twentieth century, AD? Okay so now he was in a dilemma. Screw it, he'll worry about it later if he was still alive.

So should he go for it, give up enough stealth so that he could reach the guard in a second's time flat? Or should he try and sneak up on him even though the odds of doing that successfully were low? Time to make a decision because time was a resource that he was sorely lacking.

_Screw__it_, he thought to himself as he threw himself into a sprint, landing only on the toes of his boots and not the heels. The guard picked up that something was coming for him and as he turned, Duo could see his eyes widening as he was spotted. Unfortunately for the guard, it was too late.

A tackle followed by a quick chop to the back of the guard's neck and it was over.

Slightly frazzled, Duo snatched what appeared to him to be a keycard and used it on the nearest keypad, hoping that he had selected the right room. Again, lucky was being uncharacteristically friendly as he found himself in an empty room full of monitors, all over them showing feed from various points of the base. Jackpot.

He dragged the unconscious guard in with him, the door closing behind them with a hiss. Taking out a small dart, he jabbed it into the unconscious guard's neck, letting the tranquilizer inside it get into the bloodstream.

Just a little insurance so that he wouldn't get any unexpected surprises.

A bit disappointed that the chairs he had to work with didn't have large backs to them, he managed to set the guard up to look as if he had fallen asleep on the job before taking a seat himself.

"Your eyes are open," he said quietly, pressing on the transmitter in his ear. Tapping on a few keys, he changed the images on the screens to other various points in the base. "You're going to have to give me a leaf, tell me where you are."

A little quip at the codename but if they had anybody listening in, they'd have no idea what he was talking about. It took about a minute but he did spot Trowa's "leaf" and reported that he found him.

"Okay, you have…a couple bogies coming in from your right," he instructed. "After that, another duo going opposite. Both will be in your neighborhood in twenty seconds, roughly."

_Roger_.

Ah, a man of few words and quick to understand. The only plus side Duo saw to working with this man. He didn't dare trust him around his stuff, especially after what he had done to Deathscythe. If he didn't keep an eye on him, he'd blow up some other things he was keen on keeping around.

Another minute. "You're clear. Go for it." And there Trowa was on screen, dashing out and seeking new cover. He was practically a blur, speed and grace combined in one motion that left Duo feeling a bit jealous. Tapping a few more keys, he sought to find anything that might help speed this thing up. He had no idea how long he had here until he was discovered.

One of the images caught his eye but because he was going too fast he had to backtrack to it. Sending another bit of instructions to Trowa, he frowned at this image. There were a bunch of white coats there, lab coats if he was not mistaken. What were scientists doing in a place like this? Well, whatever they were doing, a couple of them were leaning over the shoulders of their fellow scientist. And they were at a computer. Interesting.

"Hey, root yourself for a bit," he ordered. "Same thing for the peanut gallery." Another reference as well as a shout out to the backup. "We got some civilians here. All in lab getup."

_Strange. __Maybe __this __is __a __weapons __development __plant?_ he heard Quatre ask.

_Developing __new __weapons? __What __for?_ Wufei demanded.

"Well, whatever they're doing, they're doing it on a computer," he reported. "I figure that's our database—wait, they're leaving. Trowa, uproot and head towards the northwest part. It looks like these guys are calling it a night. Keep an eye out for them."

After that, silence. Time to continue acting as Big Brother and keep an eye out on and for Trowa. The guy would be able to look after himself but this place was too new to them and they hadn't had as much time as they would have wished to memorize the layout. They had no idea of how things were run around here or who was even in charge.

"Somebody's going to be on you, six o'clock," he warned. He saw Trowa respond and it was nice to see someone taken his advice for once. Almost put a tear in his eye at how much Trowa was trusting him not to lead him astray.

"You're going to want to hide, our lab buddies will be on you in ten, nine, eight…" he trailed off, keeping a looking out on the labrats. They were such a wildcard in all this. No sense taking any chances with them.

He shot a look over to the unconscious guard, making sure the guy was still conked out. Back to the monitors, he watched the small group of labmen shuffle off, one of them laughing at a joke they were told. It was bugging him about why they were here. It really nailed home that something was not right about this place.

In a few short minutes, he saw Trowa make contact with the database, hacking into the network quickly. Duo watched as the taller of them connected a small one gig flashdrive into the computer, quickly looking up the most recent files opened.

Letting Trowa work, Duo turned his sights back onto the monitors, keeping an eye out for any potential problems. Problems that might include guards walking by or one of those scientist guys returning because they forgot something. Neither seemed to be urgent yet but he nevertheless kept checking.

_There__'__s __a __lot __on __this __computer._ Trowa suddenly spoke into their transmitters. _A__lot__more__than__I__thought__there__would__be._

"Lucky you always keep a spare on you," he chuckled back. "Try to get all you can and hopefully we can come back if we need more."

_There's some financial records here. Might be a good idea to get those._

"Go for it," he said. "We might find out who's been funding this thing, whatever it is."

Things had been going so well for them that he should have been on alert for something to go wrong but that was the thing with luck. It could be your sexy lady for the night or it could be an ugly, hairy-ass man with genital warts.

He felt the close proximity between him the gun barrel that was aim directly at the back of his masked head. Hearing the hiss of the door closing from behind, Duo swore to himself. He had talked over the sound of the door opening in the first place. So what should he do now? Try and tell Trowa to bail while he got his head fill with lead or try and lull this new development into lowering their guard for a second?

A second is all he needed.

He raised his hands up slowly into the universal pose of surrender, hoping he didn't have a trigger-happy captor. "Game's up, huh?" he asked lightly, putting some humor into his voice. "Didn't expect anything like this?"

"Stand up," a voice order. Ooh, straight to the point. God, this guy was going to be another of those pretentious pricks, wasn't he? He did find it a bit odd that there wasn't any anger or superiority in that voice but really, that was a null issue. Null because there was a gun pointed at his head and nothing gave a person authority like a gun did.

Cooperating with his captor, at least for the meantime, he stood up slowly, putting his hands behind his head. Once up, he slowly turned around to face his captor, his fingers twitching behind his head, itching to dig into his hair.

He had a couple darts stashed in there just in case, you know.

Coming face-to-face this new player, Duo took one look at his face and felt the world beneath him fall apart. His heart pounded in his chest, blood rushed through his brain at an incredible rate, and his eyes nearly bulged out at the impossible sight.

* * *

><p>"Done," Trowa reported as the last of the data was saved onto the second flashdrive.<p>

He waited for Duo's response but when nothing came, he was immediately put on high alert. Duo was usually prompt with his responses, particularly when on assignments. They may not have spoken with each other much at the office or spent time with one another outside of it, but this much he did know.

Looks like their luck had run out on them.

He fully expected an alarm to be raised at any moment so he rushed through closing down the computer, making sure that all programs he had accessed were closed.

As was protocol, he would try and find if Duo had been compromised. If so, he might have to call in Wufei and Quatre who would be more than ready to swoop in, guns blazing.

Even though he and Duo hardly interacted with one another, he still felt he had to at least do something to see if he could be saved. If so, then maybe he could start bridging the gap that existed between their errant comrade and the rest of them. At least, that was what Quatre wanted and since he considered Quatre a close, personal friend, he would try to help the blond accomplish this self-appointed goal of his.

* * *

><p>Ever feel your stomach fall into your feet? Yes? No? Maybe? Whatever your answer was, that was the sensation Duo felt as he faced down this latest development, his hands practically limp behind his head.<p>

"Who are you?"

It took Duo a second to figure out that it was not him who had asked that. Yet those three little words hit him hard, harder than he would like to admit. Then he remembered that he had a ski mask on. That might help him out if he took it off.

"Mind if I take this off first?" he asked. "It's been getting a bit stuffy."

Green eyes bored into him flatly from under well-kept blond hair that he was used to being more scruffy-looking but the gun shook for a second, agreeing to let him perform this action. Slowly, so as not to spook him, Duo pulled his hands out from behind his head and used them to pull the mask off. The warm cloth was stifling against his face but Duo was not going to do anything yet that might get himself shot.

He knew that caliber of gun and he knew what it could do at this range, especially to his head.

Okay, the mask was off. Hopefully this might get him some rec—

"Who are you?"

Okay, now that hurt. It really, really hurt. Instead of showing it, he closed his eyes and shook his head like a disappointed parent.

"Man, I expected more out of you," he chided. "It's been what, twelve, fourteen years? Fifteen maybe? Sure, we both grew up but seriously, you can't tell me you've forgotten about me. I am so ashamed of you."

Green eyes hardened. The grip on the gun only tightened. "You and I have never met before."

"And what's with your voice?" he continued, trying to cover up how deep those words were cutting. "When you learn how to speak 'all prah-par an' shit'?"

"Either give me an answer of substance or shut up."

Okay, this was getting fucking ridiculous. Dropping the cheery façade if only for a moment, Duo did the one thing he hadn't done in over a decade.

He pleaded.

"Don't you remember me Solo?" he asked. "Don't you remember the kid that stuck to you like that cheesy school glue? We fuckin' grew up together!"

Solo…or maybe he should refer to this guy as a Solo lookalike. Whichever it was, this guy was not moved. At all.

"Any and all memories I have do not extend further than the barriers of this facility," the lookalike stated. "We have never met but if you are another test, please deign to admit so now and I will not injure you too badly."

This was beyond ridiculous now. This was a cruel joke, that's what it was.

"With what? That Beretta? Just try it," he dared.

Balling up the ski mask in one hand, he twisted his body as he swung his arm out, smacking the gun to a side so that it was no longer aimed at him. With his empty hand, he forced it forward, his palm smashing into the Solo lookalike's elbow. His arm then snaked over the lookalike's arm and his hand grappled with the gun. With a sharp pull downwards, he nailed his knee into the lookalike's hand and sent the gun clattering away.

Boom! A blow to the side of his head and he was dazed. Did he black out for a second? He did not know but man, there had been some power behind that one. However he was not down, not yet.

He drove his elbow into the lookalike's stomach, getting an oomph out of him. Another one in the gut and then he was tightening his grip on the guy's arm, one that he had not released after he had gotten rid of the pistol, pulled down on it, bending over so that the lookalike was going over his back.

To Duo's surprised, even though he had succeeded in flipping the lookalike, the guy pulled him down, using the strength he had only gotten a taste of a second ago. The world spun as the guy rolled them around until he was on top of the braided agent, attempting to pin him down.

Fortunately for him, one of Duo's legs was between the lookalike's and thanks to that cold reception earlier, Duo didn't find it in his heart to sympathize with him when he brought his knee straight up.

He shoved the lookalike off him but didn't stay on his back. He was up, rolling the lookalike onto his stomach, snatching the guy's arm and pulling it behind his back, stopping only when the hand was between the shoulder blades. With him in further discomfort, Duo freed a hand to snag his insurance policy just in case shit did hit the fan.

In about two seconds, he had the barrel of his gun in the back of this guy's head, a complete reversal of roles from earlier.

"You feel that?" he hissed at the blond. "You know what something like this can do to you at point blank range? Yeah, that's what I thought. Now, if you do as I say, no one is going to get hurt. Now, what you're going to do is simple. I'm going to get up off you and you're going to just sit up. Nothing else. You're going to do nothing, say nothing, or think nothing until I tell you you can do something. Nod your head if you understand."

He pulled the barrel of his gun away by an inch so that he could get his response.

"Just so we're clear, you ain't going to do anything once I let go of you, right?" he demanded.

No response. Ugh, if he was dealing with another Heero, he swore…

"Right?" he growled, tightening the armlock.

"What is it that I'm agreeing to?" the blond grunted out cautiously.

Okay, stupid much? "I said you weren't going to do anything if I let you go. And who said you could speak?"

The blond stayed still for a moment but eventually nodded his head.

"Now we're getting somewhere," Duo grunted as he slowly stood over the blond. Maneuvering until he was at the blond's side instead of on top of him, Duo made a swift prayer that this was going to be all right then released the guy, true to his word.

Now, this had to be the strangest thing he had ever seen. The guy, the Solo lookalike actually did as he, Duo, told him. He rolled onto his back slowly then sat up, looking at him expectantly for what to do next. Duo found himself scratching the side of his head at this.

"You know, I would have thought you would have tried to pull something," he chuckled, keeping his gun leveled on the blond.

"When I agree to do something, I do it," the Solo lookalike said back, his voice oh so flat.

That didn't stop the memory of seeing a similar looking person say something close to that.

"_When I say I'm gonna do somezen, I'm gonna do it, Kid. It'd make me a liar if I didn't."_

"I'm going to ask you a couple questions," he said finally. "You're going to answer them. Right?"

The blond nodded.

"Good. Who are you?" Duo asked.

"I am called Solo," the Solo lookalike answered.

Ooh, just ooh. Not only did this guy look like the kid who he practically worshiped years ago, he had the same fucking name too. He wanted nothing more than to pistol whip him for daring to say that was his name. Focus Duo. Ask him something else.

"Okay, alright," he said slowly, stalling a bit if only for him to get a hold of himself. "What are you doing here?"

"I have always been here," the Solo lookalike who was also called Solo answered. Short and simple answers, nothing to argue with there.

"What do you do here?"

"Whatever tasks I am given."

"And what 'tasks' are those?"

"Whatever I am told to do."

"Are you trying to be this difficult on purpose?"

"I was taught to try and not give an enemy any relevant information that may impact my allies."

Oh, so they were enemies now? Not that they weren't when he put a gun to his head but hey, you sometimes had to let bygones be bygones. Didn't mean he still didn't want to smash this guy's face in, though.

"So…if we are enemies now," he said slowly. Damn, he was doing everything slowly wasn't he? "Then what if I said we were allies before?"

"We have never met before so we are not allies," was his answer.

"I was expecting a 'does no compute' there," he said dryly. "Care to explain why you look just like a…an old friend of mine? The resemblance is so uncanny unless you have an identical twin stashed around here."

"I…" the blond began to say, trailing off as if Duo had just voiced something he had not thought of before. So, he did know some things, like what twins were. Yeah, he had been starting to this he was talking with a computer or Heero for a minute. "It is possible you met someone who looked like me…but I am not that person."

"How would you know? You've been here for a long time," Duo countered. "How far back do you remember?"

Alright, he had a frown. The guy was thinking and since he had told him that he would do anything he told him to do, he might start getting some answers out of this.

"You don't even know how long you've been here, do you?" he asked softly. "For all you know, you could have been here a year but feel like it's been five. How many times have you even seen the sun?"

"Every day," the blond replied. "I am required to be in peak physical condition and absorbing the rays of the sun provides me with much needed vitamin D."

"You're like an encyclopedia, aren't you?"

"No, I have a fully functioning human brain."

"You're either being serious, innocent, or sarcastic," Duo grumbled. Flicking his eyes over to the monitors for a second, he saw Trowa pass by one of them.

Oh crap. With all the excitement, he had forgotten about the mission. Almost, though, since he had this nagging feeling that he was supposed to be doing something else right now other than interrogate this guy. Still, his curiosity demanded some satisfaction and what was to say this guy wouldn't sound the alarm once his back was turned?

"You know, you've told me a lot of things," he said. "More than you think you have. It makes me wonder what you were doing checking this room out. From what you've been telling me, you aren't allowed to do a lot other than what you're told to do. Care to tell me what's up?"

Stone silence. Just like Heero. And Wufei. And at times Trowa. At least the last time he willingly talked with any of them outside of an assignment or mission.

"I don't think you're one of the guards around here," he commented lightly. "You're not even dressed like one of them. What are you wearing anyway? Looks like something from a psych ward or something. From what you say, you're a…guest? Here? Yet you're right here with me watching the base like a couple of hired hands."

"But you are holding me at gunpoint," the blond guy pointed out.

"True but you did the same to me," Duo retorted. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to break out."

Something about the eyes, they wavered for a sec. Oh ho, so the plot thickens.

"You know, if I wanted to escape from a place like this, I'd go for the security feed too. Maybe plant a recording into the feed, a continuous loop of nothing but patrols going by. Then I wouldn't have to worry about the cameras. Only to human eyes I'd have to worry about. But then there are the walls…ever thought how'd you get past those?"

"Incapacitate a guard and impersonate him," the blond said immediately. As if realizing what he had just said, the blond began blinking stupidly, wondering why the hell he had said that.

"Not bad except there's not a lot of traffic leaving this place," Duo mused. "If I didn't already know how much security sucked around this place, I would have said you'd be caught at the gate."

And now he was getting irritation from the guy, nice. Now he knew he could feel more emotions than just once. Funny how he could irritate the most stoic of people. Must be a talent of his.

"But why would you want to escape in the first place?" Duo wondered out loud. "Are you even allowed to escape? If you don't know anything outside this place, and I get that from what you've told me, you have no reason to want to escape. So what's the deal? Seems very suspicious to me."

"I am under no obligation to explain myself," the blond stated though there was a hint of anger in his voice.

"Oh? But I thought Mr. Gun here meant you had to," Duo said, eyes innocently wide open. Snorting, he added, "Well, if you really want to escape good luck with that. Just do me a favor and not tell anybody you saw me. Then we can both pass this off like a bad dream or something. Deal?"

Ah, honest confusion in those eyes. This guy had no idea how to interact with him or even follow his thought pathways. There was really only one reason why Duo hadn't shot him by now: he looked too much like that boy who he had witnessed die so long ago.

It was a mercy he hadn't bestowed on anyone else before and it would most likely be the last. Unless he was getting soft, of course.

"Why would you help me?" the blond finally asked.

"Why wouldn't I?" Duo replied. Looking at the monitors one last time, he said, "I've wasted enough time already. I know, by all rights I should shoot you but I don't want to. Maybe we'll meet again someday and you'll return the favor. Maybe not. All I want is for you to keep your mouth close and not volunteer any information. Is that something that is beyond your power?"

The Solo lookalike thought about it for a second. "I…suppose not," he said reluctantly.

"Great." Well, not really but he would take it. Picking up the discarded ski mask, he felt comfortable enough to pull it over his head, the lookalike not taking advantage of the second's worth of darkness that had taken over his eyes. Putting a finger over where his lips were, he signaled for the blond to keep quiet then slipped out of the security room as quickly as he could.

"Hey, what are you—"

He hadn't expected this, hadn't thought that there would be someone just outside of the room. So he reacted quickly and pulled the unexpected guard close to him and placed the barrel of his gun in the guard's throat, pulling on the trigger.

There was blood, both on him and splattering out the back of the guard's neck. Fucking shit.

Pushing the dying corpse aside, he scurried ahead, no longer caring for stealth. It was time to get out of this fucking place.

* * *

><p>Trowa knew that Duo would be somewhere in this portion of the base but he was only working off of the guesses he and the others had made about this place. Too little information was making what was supposed to be an in-and-out operation so much more stressful.<p>

Then he found Duo kill a guard just as he turned the corner. Automatically, Trowa pulled out his own gun and threw looks around, searching for anyone who might have heard.

Then launching himself into a sprint, he caught up with Duo and snagged the shorter man, rushing the two of them further down the hall and shoving them both into a janitor's closet.

"What do you think you're doing?" he hissed at Duo. "Do you realize what you've just done?"

"Don't start with me now, Forest," Duo snapped at him. "I have not been having a good night and he fucking snuck up on me."

"We'll deal with this when we get out of here," Trowa stated coldly. "For now, we work on getting out of here in one piece."

"Fine by me. How?" Duo asked.

"At this point, any way we can," Trowa said as he heard the sounds of multiple footsteps running past.

"Even if we have to blow this place to kingdom come?" Duo asked.

"Depends on how bad we're fucked," Trowa said. Pressing on the transmitter in his ear, he reported, "We're going to need some support. Wait ten minutes then blow a hole in the westernmost wall."

_Copy that._

"Now what?" Duo demanded.

"We play it by ear," Trowa answered as checked if his gun was ready to fire. "Our only objective is to get these flashdrives back to Une."

"Wait, you used two of them, right?" Duo asked.

"What's it matter?" Trowa asked in reply, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Give me one," Duo said. "Just in case. If one of us has both the drives on them and gets caught, it's all for nothing. Let me hold onto one in the off chance only one of us gets caught and the other gets away. At least half of what was retrieved will still make it back to HQ."

"I don't like it," Trowa stated.

"Then what's the alternative?" Duo demanded. "Oh, here's one. What about one of us creates a distraction while the other—"

"Out of the question, the one causing the distraction will get caught," Trowa interrupted. "We don't leave a man behind."

"Do you have any bright ideas then?" Duo snapped cheekily, glowering at him.

It was a decision he made at the spur of the moment. Pulling out one of the flashdrives he held, he slapped it into Duo's hand. "Don't get caught," he ordered.

"Don't plan to," Duo replied as he stored the drive away and prepared to barrel out of their hiding place into what was most certainly going to be a hail of bullets waiting for them.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Warning: language, violence, death

Chapter 3

"What's all this ruckus about?"

"Get back to your quarters Doctor. We're in the middle of something."

"Middle of? Oh, you must be talking about tonight's drill. Something wrong?"

"If you must know, one of my men was found with a hole in his neck. I think your little pet has snapped, Doctor."

"You want to terminate it?"

"You assured me that none of my men would become collateral damage in this experiment of yours, whatever the hell it is. Bradford was a damn good kid; he didn't deserve this!"

"But your men have been trained to expect attacks at any time, correct? It's an occupational hazard and even I don't know what our weapon is capable of. That's the reason for the drills."

"You gave me your word."

"Life happens. Deal with it. Capture our little rogue here and try to bring it in alive. If you have to kill, at leave don't destroy the brain. We can still retrieve useful data from it."

"Is this damn project of yours the only thing you think about?"

"It's the only thing keeping you and your men employed in some military function. Remember, outside of these walls there are no organized militaries. Unless you'd rather work for the bureaucratic Preventers, I'm your only means to regaining some semblance of your life before the end of the Eve Wars. Your men are authorized to shoot to maim, not kill."

"Just so you know, I'll be pinning Bradford's death on your head."

"So long as we understand one another."

* * *

><p><em>Red alert. Red alert. This is not a drill. Red alert. Red alert.<em>

Damn this place looked so much different with the red lights on.

Duo knew when he had fucked up and he could admit it. He shouldn't have been so trigger happy earlier and the guard…well, it sucked that he had to die. Duo was not on the top of his game anymore and while he wanted to blame that Solo lookalike, he knew that if he hadn't had let him get to him, he and Trowa would probably already be out of this base and on the way back home.

Luck was indeed an ugly, hairy-ass man with genital warts tonight.

And would they shut those damn lights off? It only served to reinforce the fact that he had fucked up big time.

"Hold it! Stay where you are!"

Duo threw himself around a corner, spinning as he did so that he could fire a couple shots at his pursuers, hopefully only to injure this time around. There was a shout, telling him he had hit someone but he had the feeling that the best he was doing was only angering these guys further.

He was going to have to get out of here as soon as possible.

About to turn down another hallway, he reversed himself and continued on the current one he was in. There were more shouts and he had to get out of sight before—

Bullets whizzed past him, a few hitting the floor, barely missing his feet. He increased his speed and turned another corner, a bullet nearly grazing his cheek.

His heart sank as he saw that he was heading towards a dead end, one that led to a large door with a small keypad. He sure as hell knew he wasn't authorized to be here so unless he knew some other way, he was not getting past that door.

With flight not one of his options, he was going to have to fight. There was no telling how many guards he had on his tail but he was going to have to try or die trying.

The moment one of his chasers came into view, he began shooting, getting the guy in the thigh and the chest. Another one, propelled forward by momentum got one in the chest too and man did he collapse like a sack of potatoes. Must have got him in the heart.

Knowing that he was not making any friends this way, Duo sprinted towards the intersection that the rest of the guards would be spilling into, pulling out a smoke bomb and throwing at the point where they would begin piling in.

There was a small explosion and a cloud of smoke erupting from the small canister he had thrown destroyed all immediate visibility. Throwing caution to the wind, Duo threw himself into that smoke cloud, ramming his shoulder into the first human body that he came into contact with.

The heel of his palm smashed into a chin, a spin of his body and he was landing his foot into someone's gut, followed by a punch to an unseen face. His elbow went backwards and he felt a nose giving way in front of it, another twist of his body following soon after, swinging a leg out to clothesline someone's chest. He ducked behind someone as he heard someone start shooting, soon after dropping to the floor as more shooting followed.

A body landed on top of him but he could tell that whoever it was was injured and wouldn't be doing anything to hinder him. He waited until the shooting stopped and the smoke cleared, letting the shooters see what they had done before he made his next move.

"Did I get anything? Did—oh God."

"Holy shit, you got Chaney and Eiler!"

"I wasn't aiming for them! I was—" And that would be the body of one of this guy's victims hitting him, Duo's fist making friends with the guy's face.

"Hey! Who—!"

A punch to the throat, a knee to the gut, and chop to the back of the head and he was down too. Panting slightly, Duo took in the scene of carnage, not at all revolted at the amount of blood he found there. The gunfire had taken down quite a few of them. Friendly fire was a bitch, wasn't it?

Ignoring the mess of bodies, he began scanning around, searching for any sign of a possible escape route. The air vents would be his first choice but he didn't see any grates nearby. He figured the one he had opened earlier was no one where around here so that meant another route of exit was needed.

But where?

Remember the door, he dropped down and began rolling bodies, searching for something, anything that might get him past that keypad and into the room beyond. He just needed to find…

"Jackpot!" he crowed to himself, finding a keycard in a bloodied pocket.

Racing back to the door, he was soon granted access and entry into what turned out to be a very expansive room. A very expansive room that had a lot of stuff, much of it in crates but not all of it was boxed away.

In fact…was that a freaking tank he saw? Where did they find that antique? And more importantly…how much did they pay for it? He had always wanted to add one of those puppies to his nonexistent weapons collection.

Was this a weapons hold or something? He had a sneaking suspicion that that's what was in these crates. At least there had to be something important in them otherwise he wouldn't have to be hiding from the guys that were keeping an eye on this stuff and who had undoubtedly heard him come in.

In fact, he could hear them coming over so it would be a good thing if he was out of sight by the time they reached him.

He was more in his element here with all the clutter; there were more places to hide and spots to ambush if he chose to do so. Right now, he could hear one of the guards give instructions to search the place. Much to his delight, they would be searching by themselves, meaning they wouldn't be patrolling by twos. Each man would be by himself with only their submachine guns to protect them.

It made it all the more easier for him to sneak up on them and take them out before they became more of a problem.

Briefly, he wondered how Trowa was doing if he had had managed to get out by now. Duo felt he had lured half the base after him but he couldn't be too sure. There were a lot of things about this place he had not expected.

Hidden behind some crates, he watched a guard investigate close by. Duo wasn't covered in the way he most felt comfortable but it would have to do so long as this guy pretended to be blind as a bat. In a minute, the guy was within arms' length and that's when Duo acted.

With the guard looking away in a different direction for a second, Duo sprang out, gun raised high into the air then slammed downwards in the back of the guard's neck, knocking him out quickly.

Automatically, Duo was dragging the guard's body out of sight, stuffing him into a corner so that he wouldn't be found too soon. Sneaking out again, Duo made use of another temporary hiding niche, watching out for the next victim to get too close.

His heart was pounding in his chest in anticipation, his keen ears picking up the sounds of the guards' muffled voices. It seemed the place was getting quieter by the second, as if they were growing enough brains to know not to mutter their internal dialogues out loud. Then another guard came into sight, unknowingly heading in his direction.

Duo readied himself, waiting until the right moment before he struck and knocked this guard out too. Lowering the guard to the ground so that he didn't make a lot of noise by clattering to the floor, Duo got ready to drag this one out of sight too until he heard a clicking sound.

Snapping his head around, he saw another guard had come up behind him and the clicking sound had been the noise made when the guard had aimed his machine gun at him. Duo could tell this guy, unlike himself, had no intention of holding back his killing impulse.

Well, shit.

Before Duo could pull out a throwing knife to try and take this guy out, someone came to the braided agent's rescue. A white-clad arm snaked around the heedless guard's neck while a large hand slapped itself onto his forehead. A quick jerk and immediate snap and the guard was down with a broken neck.

That, however, was not what held Duo's attention.

"You?" he blurted out in a hiss.

Flat green eyes stared back at him and no, there was no hair obscuring one of them.

"You're not really attentive to your surroundings, are you?" the Solo lookalike asked.

"You want me to hand your ass back to you?" Duo spat back, eyes darting around for anyone that might come upon them. The Solo lookalike must have figured out what he was doing because he spoke to him without prompting.

"The others have been neutralized," he reported. "We are currently not in any immediate risk."

Recalling that the guards had been getting steadily quieter a few minutes ago, Duo put the pieces together to come up with only one plausible explanation. This lookalike had followed him into the room and had dispatched the guards for him. But why?

"Helping me? Or are you saving me so you can take me out yourself?" he asked warily.

"I have been told to escape by any means necessary," the Solo lookalike answered. "Those are my instructions and I will fulfill them."

"Christ, another Heero," Duo grumbled. "You're not suicidal, are you?" he ventured.

"No," the Solo lookalike stated, frowning at him.

"Never mind," Duo cut him off. "You want to escape? Fine. So do I but right now I have a base full of armed men looking for me. If there is another exit around here, be kind enough to inform me about it."

"Only one and I jammed it so that no one else will enter," was his answer.

Hmm, why hadn't he done that earlier? He'd ponder that later. Back to the matter at hand, with this piece of information, he figured he was stuck in this armory for the moment. That presented a problem as he had to get out of this place as soon as possible.

"Any suggestions you might have to leave would be nice," he said sarcastically.

"I have never come into this part of the base when undergoing this exercise before," the Solo lookalike stated. "I will follow your lead for the moment."

"Before? No, forget I said anything," Duo said hastily. Damn, this was not going well. At this rate, he was going to find himself a permanent guest of this place and that was not part of the plan, especially since the goal was to get out, alive, and with the flashdrive he had taken from Trowa in one piece.

Looking around at his surroundings, his eyes landed on the tank and an idea came to him.

"Do you think that tank still works?" he asked.

* * *

><p><em>The <em>_ten __minute __deadline __is __almost __up. __Prepare __yourself __Mirage_.

Quatre didn't reply as he aimed the rpg at the compound. He had no idea what was going on other than things had turned south in there and their boys needed their help. Trusting Trowa on the ten minute stall, time was almost up and the blond Winner hoped that both Trowa and Duo were safe if only for the moment.

Things were about to get rocky.

As he mentally counted down the seconds, he braced himself as he kept the military base that shouldn't exist in sight of his scope. They were getting into the final ten seconds…five…four…three…two…

There was a loud boom followed by a large billowing of smoke. Quatre refrained from pressing down on the trigger, wondering what the cause of that explosion had been. By now the base was well lit but he didn't see any smoke trail that signaled that Wufei had fired. In fact, he got confirmation over their radio transmitters of Wufei demanding to know what had just happened.

Using the scope less to aim and more to investigate, he could feel his eyes widening as he saw an antique piece of military equipment barrel out of the large plume of smoke

"Duo," Quatre stated to himself, refraining from shaking his head at the overt display. "Only Duo."

Narrowing his eyes, he used the scope to once again aim and this time he did pull the trigger, shooting a small rocket straight at one of the walls of the base. He aimed for the top portion of the wall, hoping that the person driving that tank would take it as a signal to exit there.

Not waiting to see if either one of their guys had read his sign, he reloaded the rocket launcher as quick as possible, ignoring another boom that he could accurately refer to as being caused by Wufei.

Once reloaded, he aimed the launcher again, this time towards the base. Specifically, it was towards an entrance that he could see guards beginning to spill out of. While not liking the fact he might end up killing someone, he knew that if either Duo or Trowa stood a chance of getting out of there, stemming the tide of men coming after them would be to their benefit.

He fired and got a direct hit, the entrance collapsing on itself. Reloading again, knowing that this would probably be his last shot before return fire would be coming at him, he used the scope again to check up on that tank.

He saw that it wasn't heading towards the portion of the wall that he had shot first at and he frowned at that. What was it—a boom at one of the gun turrets that were mounted onto of the wall answered that question.

Damaging the outer defenses, not a bad idea. Odds were that whoever was here would be leaving immediately but odds were they wouldn't be able to clean up all the mess. They'd come back here with a larger force of Preventers and be able to at least gather some knowledge of what was going on here, possibly who was involved as well. Hopefully.

Another gun turret was taken out just as the blond got a message from his transmitter.

_Forest has just rendezvoused with me. Any contact with Nightmare?_

"Negative, he must be the one in the tank," he replied.

_Forest has informed me that Nightmare had suggested he would try and draw the enemy's attention. We're trying to contact him but he has not heeded us."_

"Probably having too much fun," Quatre said. "Not the best time for it though."

The tank fired at the wall this time. Looked like they managed to get through to him. He saw the tank fire again though at the same spot it had fired at before. What was Duo doing? A third shot and still the wall had not collapsed. Was he trying to break through the wall…what was he doing now?

He didn't think his eyes could get any wider as he saw Duo ram the tank at the portion of the wall he had fired at only seconds ago. It came to him that the earlier shots had been to weaken that portion of wall so that their braided menace could break through it. He had definitely put on some speed at those last seconds.

And he was still driving the metal machine into the wilderness. Yes, bailing out of here seemed like a good idea too. The men manning this place were heading for the opening in their fortifications and it wouldn't take them long to find him should he continue to stand around like an idiot.

"Looks like we're pulling out," he said as he gathered what equipment he could and took off.

* * *

><p>Several hours later, Quatre met back up with Trowa and Wufei, a couple miles distance between them and the base behind them.<p>

"Anybody seen Duo?" he panted, shrugging off the rocket launcher as he caught his breath.

"Not yet. I think that idiot is probably trying to figure out all the possible ways he can cause destruction with that thing. How he found it in the first place is anyone's guess," Wufei stated.

"So we should be looking for any sign of mass destruction?" Quatre asked wryly. "The fact that we haven't found anything destroyed around here leads me to believe he went in another direction."

"The fact that he's in a moving vehicle suggests to me that wherever he's at, he's probably further along than we are," Trowa pointed out. "He could have checked to see where he was and adjusted accordingly."

"No, it's more his style to leave an intricate path that backtracks on itself multiple times so as to lead pursuers astray," Quatre replied. "Odds are he's probably ditched the tank and is playing catch up."

"Hopefully he accomplishes that soon," Trowa stated. "There was so much information back at the base that I had to use two flashdrives to get it all. We agreed to each hold one of the flashdrives in the case one of us gets captured while the other gets away. At least that way part of the intel we gathered will make it back to HQ."

"So not only is he running around in an ancient vehicle of warfare, he also has half the data collected from this botched venture?" Wufei summed up.

"That is correct," Trowa confirmed.

"We should get going," Quatre said. "They might still be after us and picked up on our trail. We need to rendezvous with the other agents before that happens."

"So long as Agent Nightmare rejoins us before he lives to become his namesake," Wufei muttered as he took the lead.

* * *

><p>Commander Farrell gazed at the destruction dispassionately, apparently unruffled by what he saw. That was what he exhibited to the men who were somewhat dazed at the unexpected catastrophe that had occurred; on the inside he was seething in rage.<p>

He had been assured that nothing like this could happen or would happen. Well, everything in front of him seemed to contradict that! There was only one person he found he could blame for this and luckily for him that man was slowly approaching him from behind.

Dark eyes glimmered in malice as he spun on his booted heel, his large mustache bristling in agitation as he glared at the other man. His gloved hands twitched, one of them moving in on his sidearm as he internally debated on whether or not he should shoot this man whose horn rimmed glasses reflected the fire light.

"There's nothing to be worried about, huh?" he demanded. "Safe as safe can be, right? This is just a drill, what's the worst that can happen? Is none of what you're seeing right now a worst case scenario, Wallace?"

The thin, reedy man in the suit and labcoat was not in the least taken aback by the verbal rampage directed at him, something that the Commander resented. It was like this was another one of his damned experiments and that the results were only pieces of his precious data that he needed to collect. The way those dispassionate, bright blue eyes took in everything but revealed nothing of the man's thought processes, magnified by those accursed glasses, further irritated the Commander.

"Wallace! What do you have to say about this?" Commander Farrell roared, swinging an arm out to gesture at the carnage. "Is this was you were expecting? Was it?"

The doctor directed his emotionless gaze at the Commander, one side of his mouth quirking upwards while the other remained flat, a crooked smile the result. "Not at all but this is the purpose of the drills and testing. To find out what our weapons are capable of. This is as unexpected to me as it is to you but I must say, this has certainly exceeded my expectations."

"Exceeded your…twenty-seven of my men are corpses you bastard!" Commander Farrell bellowed. "How do you explain that! Weren't your instructions that no one was to be harmed?"

Not answering him right away, Dr. Wallace trained his eyes on the large, gaping hole in the walled perimeter. "I trust that your men are searching for it, yes? I do hope they wouldn't be too hard on it."

"Do you care for that abomination more than that of your fellow humans?" Commander Farrell exclaimed, aghast at the man's apathy. Didn't this man have any compassion in that hollow shell of his?

"I've placed more financial assets into this project that I have the salaries of your men," Wallace stated coldly. "I would rather something be retrieved than none at all. In the end, you will have a new weapon, the greatest that mankind has ever had. With it, you can reestablish the might of any military you wish so long as I have your cooperation in this phase of the project."

"Not at the expense of so many lives being sacrificed for it," Farrell growled. "Look at all this!"

"I thought you would be pleased that we have been able to create such a powerful weapon for you," Wallace stated. "Look at the potential. See what it has done already and imagine what it can do once we finish the final model. If a prototype can do all this…"

"Is your obsession blinding you?" Farrell demanded. "Wallace—"

"Stop your rabbling," Wallace interrupted. "Right now your primary focus should be on retrieving that weapon. We'll be packing up here; the amount of noise ought to have attracted some kind of attention, the kind that we do not need right now. My colleagues are already packing the equipment away and we'll need transportation soon. Do I need to remind you that if we get caught, it will lead back to you and the last thing either of us want is to be is arraigned on our illegal activities."

"Whatever," Farrell spat. "Fine. So long as I don't lose any more of my men. If you haven't noticed, we have a limited number of those and they _aren__'__t_ expendable."

"I'll keep that in mind," Wallace said dryly as he turned away from the commander, his slicked back white hair barely showing a sign of agitation.

Glaring at the doctor's back, Farrell snapped back towards his men and issued his orders.

* * *

><p>The forest was lit up by the pale, morning sunlight and Duo found himself in quite a quandary.<p>

It wasn't the fact that he was lost in the middle of nowhere with little clue to the nearest center of civilization or the fact he had ditched the tank a few miles back after throwing off his pursuers.

No, what seemed to be giving the most trouble this fine morning was the fact he was not alone. From atop the large rock the braided one had perched himself on, he eyed the blond that had been following him throughout the night. In one hand, he held a gun casually while in the other he toyed with the transmitter that had once been in his ear. Currently, said blond had those uncanny green eyes of his trained on him and Duo doubted that he had blinked even once.

This was the quandary he had mentioned: what was he going to do with this guy? It wasn't like he could take him back home and ask Une if he could keep him. Yeah sure, that would fly over without trouble.

And normal gunpowder could scratch gundanium alloy.

Maybe it was because this guy looked so much like the street urchin he so fondly remembered and it didn't help that he too went by the same name. What were the odds?

What was most confusing right now was that he hadn't figured out why this Solo clone or whoever he really was was following him around. He wasn't giving up anything or volunteering any information so Duo was, quite frankly, stuck.

Since the lookalike didn't look like he was going to say anything, Duo decided if they were to get anywhere, it would have to be himself who started the dialogue.

"So? What now?" he ventured out.

The Solo lookalike said nothing.

Duo sighed; how he hated the strong but silent types. They were always so frustrating to deal with. "You've escaped. You accomplished what you were told to do. So why don't you just…do what you're suppose to do afterwards and also keep the fact you know I exist a secret?"

"I have not been given further instructions," the lookalike stated.

"Do you need to be told when to take a piss? Never mind, don't answer that," Duo snarked, his fingers curling around the transmitter. "So what, you're just going to stand around here doing nothing or are you going to be following me around until you grow tired?"

"You are the only other person who has given me any directions before," the Solo lookalike stated. "I feel…more comfortable staying by you until I receive further instruction."

"Like a Goddamn robot," Duo muttered. Sliding off the rock, he pressed his face into his palm and slowly dragged his hand down his face as if he was trying to tear it off.

Okay, so this guy had been taking orders all his life it seemed. He had done so for so long that just being given the opportunity to do as he liked was an offer that was rejected. So what was he going to do about this?

A thought occurred to him and he knew that he had to get some answer for this one before curiosity drove him mad. "Why were you trying to escape in the first place anyway? Did someone order you to?"

"Affirmative."

So someone really did order him to…?

"Why?" he blurted out. "Why would someone in there order you to escape?"

"It was another test to discover the limits and capabilities allowed to me by my current skills and abilities."

"Another test? You mean you've been ordered to escape that place before?" Duo rambled. "What kind of place was that? What the hell were they doing back that?"

"That information was never relayed to me."

"That was a rhetorical question. You do know what those are, right?" Duo retorted. Ignoring any response he might get, he shoved his hands into his pockets, pulling one out almost immediately.

Huh, the flashdrive. He had forgotten about that thing. …say, this little thing might have some answers for him, answers pertaining to what was going on in that compound. Most of what he was told didn't make much sense so maybe this little thing could shine some light on the situation.

But he needed to get to a computer first because without that, this little storage device was practically useless.

That still left the problem of the blond that was still staring up at him. What was he going to do about him? Should he just abandon him in the middle of the woods and take off?

Duo knew he couldn't do that the moment the thought popped into his head. There was just something about this guy that reminded him of Solo. It was probably the looks department but regardless of that, Duo couldn't bring himself to be that heartless.

It would be like getting rid of a kid…a kid who knew how to kill people with his bare hands but a kid nonetheless. That once again raised the question of what was really going on back there.

However, there was one little thing he needed to clear up first.

"Listen, whoever you are, I'm not going back to that place," he warned. "In fact, I'm going to try and put as much distance between it and me. So you have a choice right now. Either you can go back there and do whatever it is you used to do there or you can stick with me for a bit. It's your choice."

Damn it, he felt like he was talking to a rock. An expressive rock but a rock no matter how you looked at it. The guy was staring at him, completely lost. Duo wondered briefly where he had lost him; was it at "I'm not going back to that place" or "It's your choice"?

"Personally, I don't care what you do so long as you don't tell anybody back there that you met me," he said nonchalantly though he was anything but. "You saved my ass back there so I kinda owe ya one anyway so here's what I'll do. I won't shoot you. Sounds like a pretty good deal, right?"

Nothing but that blank yet confused stare.

"Alright, what's the deal?" Duo demanded. "Where did I lose you? You're looking at me like I got two heads or something."

"Are…are you not going to give me orders?" the blond finally asked though his speech was filled with hesitation.

"They have you really whipped back there, don't they?" Duo said wonderingly. "Did you make any decisions back there? Any at all?"

"I…" the blond trailed off. "I…do not recall."

"You just did whatever they told you to do, didn't you?" Duo asked softly.

"Correct…"

"And you've never been given a chance to do something that you wanted to do, right?" Duo prodded further.

"I—"

"Let me guess, you're only allowed to want to do something if someone tells you you can?" Duo interrupted dryly. When there was nothing in the negative given to him, Duo put a hand to the side of his head and just said, "Wow. Just…wow."

"Is there something wrong with that?" the blond asked.

Yeah, that kid analogy was looking more and more on target with every word the blond said. That damn conscience of his…crap, he knew that he couldn't send him back and this time not because of his resemblance to Solo. This was crazy, what he was thinking, and he knew without a doubt it was going to bite him in the ass, sooner rather than later.

"Refresh my memory again, what is it that you are called?" Duo sighed, resigning himself to the inevitable, sliding off the rock and pocketing the transmitter. "After running for my life back there, I tend to forget little details."

"I am called Solo," the blond answered him without sign of being annoyed.

"Solo. Right." He was sighing a lot, wasn't he? "Why don't you stick with me for now until we can find out what exactly is going on. You've got to have some questions yourself and if you don't have any, think of some. This is going to be a very, very long day."

"Aren't days suppose to be twenty-four hours long?" Solo asked.

"There's a lot in this world you don't know about do you?"


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Warning: language, violence, death

Chapter 4

Duo hadn't found himself in the middle of nowhere very much during the wars and even when he did find himself far away from civilization, he had never taken the time to stop and smell the roses so to speak.

Well, now he was in the middle of nowhere, who knew how far from civilization, and he was resting near a babbling brook. Yes, babbling. He had heard that term before but never had he given much credence to it. But here he was and the brook was indeed babbling.

Funny thing, he thought to himself, people thought he babbled all the time like this brook here. Always making noise but not really saying anything. He didn't talk all the time and didn't need to either. It was just…sometimes he needed some noise and what was more calming than that of a human voice that you knew? Okay, that last bit sounded a bit narcissistic but he'd like to see you do better.

He wasn't alone out here, though. His blond shadow was still here, crouched near the brook but obviously on alert. Out in a territory that you were unfamiliar with was something to be tense about but now that Duo thought about it, he hadn't seen "Solo" relax at all.

Yeah, he was using the quotation marks now. It kinda got irksome always referring to him as a lookalike, which he still was. But he wasn't Solo; he wouldn't ever be because Solo had died long ago and he had never known any military tactics or had that kind of training.

He had to look away; it wouldn't be right to get pissed at this guy because he just happened to look like an old friend through no fault of his own. He still had some questions though but until they could find some place to clean up and he could get into contact with someone, they would have to remain on the back burner.

A few minutes passed and the braided one began to feel a bit antsy. Sure the babbling brook destroyed any possibility of absolute silence but it was starting to become white noise. He needed something more engaging that this. Sure they were resting but that didn't mean he couldn't exercise his brain, you know?

Looking back over at "Solo," he steeled his nerves, telling himself that this was not the person he thought he was. "Something on your mind? You look real edgy."

Those green eyes captured him, sharp as they continuously scanned their surroundings, searching for any kind of threat. "Why have we remained camped for so long? Should we not continue moving?"

"It's not like anybody is chasing us," Duo shrugged. "If they were, we would have heard them behind us a long time ago. Besides, we're not in any rush, right?"

"I was under the impression when you escaped, you are pursued by those holding you," "Solo" replied.

"When you lose someone, they have to find your trail before they can catch up with you," Duo explained. "And if you hadn't noticed last night, I was making a false trail. Sure, it'll eventually lead them to the tank but after that? They're going to need some real good trackers to find our trail."

"You are forgetting something," "Solo" said, intensely staring at him. "It is something I have been curious about. What were _you_ doing in the compound? Are you also part of the exercise?"

Wow, talk about left field. Not really but now that he thought about it, Duo hadn't told this guy why he had been in that base back there. Duo may not know much about this Solo imposter but it also went vice versa. "Solo" had no clue who he was and yet he was still hanging around him.

"At this point in time, I don't think I am at liberty to tell you anything," Duo stated, leaning back and closing his eyes. Probably not the best thing to do as the person he was talking to was capable of causing him harm but that was what ears are for. There's a lot of foliage on the ground they're resting on and every movement either of them made would make a sound. The crunching of leaves, the scratching of rocks as they scraped against one another, all were going to make a noise.

"Then why should I inform you of anything else concerning myself?" "Solo" demanded.

"Not a bad question, actually," Duo commented. "There is not one reason why you should answer me or even talk to me. However, I think you should consider the following before you decide to shut your yap and ignore me. You've lived your whole life, or at least what you remember, in that base. You've been taught how to fight, how to kill, and anything else that pertains to warfare. You're given drills that have you apply these skills and are given instructions by some men who you have yet to tell me anything about. Your whole world is back in that base with probably only a few hundred feet of space outside of those walls included.

"That, from what you've told me, is what I understand about you. Looking at where you are now, outside of the place and in the middle of nowhere with a person you have never met or even knew existed before. To me, it looks like the world you know is incredibly small. There's a huge, big world out there and you haven't explored even one percent of it. You've been in that place all your life but have you never thought that perhaps there was a reason for it? That the men you saw every day were training you for something, something big?

"Now, I know you've probably don't see anything wrong with it but there are so many people in this world who have no idea of what kind of life you have led. If anything, none of them have been brought up the way you have. So why were you brought up that way? Has it ever occurred to you that something was up? That the men who were training you have some sort of role for you to fulfill? A role you have no clue about yet?"

"I understand that I do have a role to fulfill," "Solo" said. "I understand that the skills that I have learned are ones that are taught for a specific reason. However, now that you have summed up my being in so few sentences, you do raise some…points that I have not considered before. I believe that I have been trained to be a soldier using the information that was taught to me and from basic historical reasons."

Duo frowned at that. "They taught you more than just how to fight and kill?"

"A soldier is more than just an unthinking organism; he has to make decisions quickly during the heat of combat so a sound mind is required," "Solo" stated. "The smart soldier is the one who plans their actions ahead and can adapt easily to ever changing conditions."

"No argument on that but you're starting to sound like a robot," Duo said hastily, holding up a hand to silence the other. He soon found out, though, that telling the other to be quiet that way was not going to fly easily.

"Why are you holding your hand up like that?" "Solo" asked, frowning. "I have noticed that when you speak, you sometimes make strange movements with your hands and arms."

But he was just… Okay, something was fishy here. Very fishy.

Purposely, Duo bent his ring and pinkie fingers down, placed the pad of his thumb over the two fingers and held the middle and pointer fingers up in a V shape, the peace sign as he knew it. "Solo" just blinked at him, no comprehension in his eyes.

Testing the waters again, he curled all his fingers together as if he was making a fist except he held his thumb out, as if he was hitchhiking or giving a "thumbs-up." Nothing. He brought the thumb back but raised the middle finger next, flipping the bird.

Once again, nothing. Did he not understand hand gestures?

…

There really was a lot of stuff he didn't know, wasn't there? What exactly were they teaching him back at that base? Maybe if he could wheedle some more information out of him, he might…wait. What was that sound?

It was a chopping sound and a continuous one at that. It kinda whirred at the same time so that might explain why that chopping sound seemed to pattern itself into a beat of sorts. He recognized that sound…it was the sound of helicopter blades…

Peering straight up through the leaves and branches of the trees, he could barely make out the helicopter as it flew overhead. It passed by them, not seeing them, but that didn't stop Duo from getting up onto his feet. Whose 'copter was that? Did it belong to someone who lived around here? Hopefully in a town? Or did it belong to the Preventers? Crap, he had forgotten about that.

Had Trowa managed to escape? And what about the others? He may not care for them on a personal level but he still didn't want them getting hurt.

"Perhaps we should get moving," he suggested. "I think we might have found human life."

"That sounds like the UH-60," "Solo" said, alert again as he stood up.

"UH-60?" Duo repeated, shooting him a look.

"Black Hawk," "Solo" clarified. "There was one back at the compound."

"How the hell did they hide that?" Duo demanded. "It didn't show up… Goddamn it, it better not be those guys."

"Perhaps we should keep moving," "Solo" suggested. "It would not be wise to linger."

"Took the words right out of my mouth," Duo muttered.

* * *

><p>You'd be surprised how long it can take for thirty minutes to pass. If you were playing hide 'n seek with an unidentified helicopter, you'd expect for it to fly by.<p>

The damn flying contraption was circling the area, giving weight to the theory that it was looking for something or someone. Since the two of them were the only ones out here and in this particular area, Duo thought that that was the case.

Unless he had inadvertently found the trail of the other guys, whoever was in that 'copter was looking for them. Why, oh why, couldn't it have belonged to some private citizen? A private citizen who was loaded with cash out the wazoo but loaded nonetheless.

"How do you take care of a helicopter when your strongest weapon is a pistol?" Duo asked out loud, annoyed by the constant chopping noise. "Can't think with all this noise!"

Peering up through the leaves and branches above him, Duo saw the helicopter fly by one more time, going ahead of them. Maybe it was time they took a different path. Too bad that it seemed like no human being trekked out here on a regular basis as there were no dirt trails around whatsoever. Still, it gave a sense of freedom, knowing that he was on a path not walked.

A sense of freedom that only lasted as long as he didn't hear those damn propeller blades. Looking over at "Solo," he decided to see if the guy had any ideas.

"Hey," he called over at the blond. Those green eyes darted over at him for a second, returning back towards the general direction where they had last seen the helicopter go. Knowing the blond was lending him a little attention, Duo proceeded to ask, "Any ideas about our tail? Know how to get rid of it?"

"Take out the pilot," "Solo" replied almost immediately.

"Okay. How?"

"Get to a high vantage point, wait for the Black Hawk to circle around, then fire into the cockpit."

"Sounds like a good idea. Where's a good vantage point?"

"The trees."

"That thing's not high enough," Duo stated, making a quick estimate of the surrounding tree's height. "Copter's too high. If we're spotted, who knows what it'll do."

"It could belong to your people," "Solo" said.

"Maybe but it'd have a logo on it," Duo mused, smacking himself internally at that slip of information. Cat was almost out of the bag but maybe not. Still, the blond had to have heard him. Going through any kind of military training helped you to develop a heightened sense of hearing after some time. "You get a good look at its sides?"

"Not particularly," "Solo" answered. "Still need confirmation."

"Freakin' ridiculous," Duo muttered. Really, this was getting ridiculous. Maybe he really just was being paranoid and this was help. Still, he hadn't gotten as far as he had in life without being suspicious, his current status as an unwilling Preventers agent notwithstanding.

"I'm going to get a closer peek," he told "Solo." "Don't go too far."

Reaching above his head, he pulled himself up on the branch closest to him. After that, he was quickly scurrying up the tree, taking quick glances back down at his companion. No sense turning his back on the guy before he could determine whether or not the guy was someone he could trust.

Despite their escapade the night previous, he did not trust this lookalike.

The higher he climbed up the tree, the slower his assent was. There were less stronger branches up here and they were much smaller. That and his hair was getting picked up by some twigs. He was going to have to clean that thing out the next chance he got. Last he was aware, the leaves and twigs sticking out of your hair look was still not in fashion.

At last, he managed to breach the top of the tree, taking care not to give himself away by bursting through the leaves. Instead, he grabbed many of the thin, bendable branches and pushed them aside, opening a hole in the thicket of leaves. He scanned the sky, not finding anything except clouds. He opened another hole at a different angle, continuing to search the skies, searching for the helicopter that was now absent.

Huh, he didn't hear that chopping sound anymore. Had they given up and left? No, they had been searching this area for this long, and it was a large area mind you, and they wouldn't just give up now. But if they couldn't locate them through the air, eventually they'd have to scour the ground.

Waiting a couple minutes for that telltale sound and not hearing anything, he slid back down towards the ground. The blond was still there, waiting for him. He let himself drop off the tree once he was low enough, landing on his feet and taking a few steps to get the shock out of his legs.

"You didn't hear anything?" he asked.

"Solo" gave him a questioning look.

"I couldn't see the 'copter and I don't hear it," he elaborated. "While unlikely, did you hear it while I was up there?"

"Solo" tilted his head to a side, a sign that he was thinking and recalling. "No, I do not recall hearing anything while you were scouting."

"So where is it?" Duo asked himself, not expecting and not getting an answer from the blond. "Did it leave? If so, where did it go? It's not like it just vanished out of thin air."

The crunching of the leaves off to his right was the only warning either of them had that they weren't alone. A split second was all the time he had to get behind a tree just as tree bark exploded as it was impaled by a bullet.

"Fuck!" Duo swore as he pulled out his gun, quickly checking his ammo and swearing again. He only had one fresh clip and half of another. He was going to have to be conservative with his shots…and he wasn't that good at conserving.

He could hear the thumping of the bullets hitting around the tree, spotted the clumps of dirt jumping into the air where enemy shots landed. These guys were definitely not Preventers and from the sound of it, they were definitely using some kind of machine guns. They had more bullets than him; not good for his own odds.

A quick glance told him that "Solo" was also using a thick tree for cover, holding up his gun in a familiar pose, the same one taken by those in shootouts. He did not know if the guy had any ammunition on him but he figured he was on his last clip. Best to expect the worst and be pleasantly surprised later.

So they had about two and a half clips of bullets, maybe less than that and they were going up against guys who had a lot more than they did. A lot more. Every shot they made would have to count; they couldn't afford to waste any.

In his gut, Duo knew he was going to have to kill, again. Yeah, he did kill a few back at the base but it still left a bad taste in his mouth. Years ago, he had hoped not to do it again but as the years passed he found himself doing it again and again.

"Fucking tired of this shit," he grumbled to himself, falling silent as the enemy fire stopped. He strained his hearing, listening for the sound of footsteps, boots crunching the leaves with each step. He wasn't disappointed.

He spared "Solo" another look, the blond doing the same. Eye contact established, Duo hoped the other understood army hand gestures. He hadn't understood the ones from before so this might be a futile exercise but he had to try. The green eyes stared at him fixedly as Duo contorted his hand into several different gestures that sent a message silently.

_Wait until they're close. Shoot to kill. Don't waste a shot._

He got a nod of understanding, a good sign if he ever saw one. Okay, a vague picture of a plan but it was better than having none. Those footsteps were coming closer; they were going to have to time this just right. One thing was for sure, things were going to go to hell the moment the time was right and they made their move.

One step. Two steps. One more and the nearest enemy would be practically at his tree. Lowering a hand, Duo drew out a combat knife, holding it ready to be thrown at a second's notice. The second he heard the footstep land a foot away from where he was, Duo spun into action.

Spinning on a heel, he whirled around, leaving the safety of the tree. As the world spun around him in a blur, he found himself right in front of a dark-clad, helmeted man whose eyes widened in surprise at seeing him. There was an M-16 in the man's arms, aimed directly in the path that Duo found himself in.

In a quick move, he pushed the barrel of the machine gun away as he aimed the barrel of his pistol at the man's neck. A pull of the trigger, the blast of a gunshot, and the man was crumpling to the ground. All and all, it took about two seconds for all that to happen.

Duo was already moving, throwing the knife in his hand out, the blade slicing through the air until it slammed right into another man's neck. The enemy gunfire began to erupt again but Duo was already pulling back behind the tree again, dragging the casualty back with him. The dying man's blood was spewing from the gunshot wound in the neck and onto him but Duo ignored the warm liquid as he gritted his teeth together.

The enemy bullets sounded too close to his head and he worried that maybe this tree wouldn't be an effective shield for much longer. Eventually, he feared, bullets would finally go through the whole tree and then his position would be compromised.

He heard the enemy fire lessen and he saw "Solo" pull back behind his tree, pulling his gun back with him out of a firing position. Seemed like "Solo" got one of them because now the gunfire was being focused more towards him. Glancing down, he noticed the dying…dead man's machine gun, still strapped around the man's shoulder. Pulling it off, he leaned out from behind his tree and began returning the rapid-fire bullets.

By now, their pursuers had taken cover as well. This was starting to become a shoot-out only they, Duo and "Solo," were incredibly under armed. Who knew how many guys were there but by staying the way they were, both of them would be eventually overwhelmed.

If he had one of the guys here, maybe he could have come up with something to…never mind, they weren't here and might-have-beens wouldn't get him out of this one. Glancing back down at the dead body that was at his feet, he snatched what looked like a grenade.

He had to be out of his mind to even be _thinking_ about doing this.

Giving himself a one, two, three countdown, he armed the incendiary device and threw the round projectile.

* * *

><p>With one man M.I.A., the three ex-Gundam pilots had delivered the news of the botched black op. It was slightly relieving that they weren't face to face with the Preventers Director but even over a laptop, Une could still be intimidating.<p>

It was a small hope that the data Trowa had managed to recover would be enough to buy them a little forgiveness in the near future.

The video conference had only barely begun and already Une was rubbing her temples. While most would be sweating bullets, the three ex-pilots kept their cool like experienced poker players and gave nothing away. For Trowa, it was easy because he had spoken with Une face to face before, traded words with both of the personalities she displayed during the wars and so knew how to avoid most of the verbal barbs that would be thrown their way.

She had definitely mellowed out but it was never smart to cross her. Instead of being violent and steamrolling over anything that displeased her, she was more subtle and quiet nowadays.

"_I __am __having __trouble __understanding __just __what __happened __here,__"_ Une stated as she lowered her hands from her forehead, her eyes piercing into them. _"__You__'__ve __done __operations __harder __and __more __challenging __than __this __one __and __have __come __out __without __a __scratch __or __giving __away __your __presence. __Explain __what __went __wrong.__"_

Though they were facing the laptop, Trowa knew that Quatre and Wufei were looking at him from the corners of their eyes, wanting to know just as much as Une what happened in there.

Trowa cleared his throat, a maneuvering to buy himself a few seconds to order his thoughts and scan his memories of the night previous.

"We managed to breach the outer perimeter and security as planned," he reported. "Once we were inside, that was where our planning fell short."

"_Fell short?"_

"That's an understatement," he said frankly. "The inside of the complex was different from what we expected. The layout was not parallel with what the blueprints you gave us designated. Still, Agent Nightmare was able to locate the security center and warn me of the armed guards. We did happen to discover civilians inside as well and from a terminal they were working with, I was able to copy a great deal of information. Without anything specific to look for, I copied anything that looked relevant or important."

"_Up __until __that __point, __everything __was __going __as __good __as __they __could, __correct?__"_ Une finished. _"__That __still __doesn__'__t __explain __to __me __how __things __concluded __as __they __have.__"_

"In our initial attempt to exit the complex, Agent Nightmare went silent. In order to determine if he was compromised or not, I found my way to the security center. As I arrived, Agent Nightmare was terminating one of the armed guards with his firearm. The noise alerted the complex to our presence."

"_So __are __you __telling __me __that __Agent __Nightmare __is __at __fault?__"_ Une asked.

"I was unable to inquire what his reasons for his untimely execution were," Trowa said neutrally. "We managed to hide ourselves away where we agreed to divide the data I recovered so that in the off chance that one of us was captured, the other would be able to at least get away with half the data."

"_Half? __How __did __you __split __a __one __gigabyte __flashdrive __in __half?__"_ Une wondered.

"There was so much information to copy, I had to use two flashdrives to get it all," Trowa answered.

"_And Agent Nightmare has one of these flashdrives?"_

"Correct."

"_And Agent Nightmare is currently missing?"_

"Correct."

"_Then I believe your mission is clear now. Locate Agent Nightmare and recover that flashdrive. Before you depart, I hope that you have already downloaded what information you did recover and sent it."_

"It was sent as soon as we were connected to a clean connection," Quatre spoke up, relieving Trowa of his turn as spokesman. "To be sure that nothing happened, we sent the copied documents to your office e-mail. You should have received it by now."

"_Very well. You're dismissed for the moment. Pick up our missing agent's trail and find him…"_

Une trailed off as she looked away from them, her gaze focused on something or someone off screen. The three ex-pilots took the opportunity to shoot each other looks, wondering what was going on.

"_It seems luck is smiling on you, gentlemen. We have received reports of explosions and gunfire near your area. I am sending you the approximate coordinates now so be ready to deploy. I'm sending a platoon over to what's left of the base; hopefully you crippled their defenses enough that we won't face much resistance."_

With that, the video conference was over and they all had their internal organs still intact. Yay.

"Maxwell better have a good explanation for this," Wufei growled as he opened up the e-mail Une has sent them.

Sending Quatre a look, Trowa agreed with his irate comrade.

* * *

><p>It was quiet but far from safe.<p>

His pistol had a full chip, two M-16's still had some ammo left, one of which was pilfered from another fallen enemy, and he had one last stolen grenade in case shit hit the fan.

Duo was trying to keep as quiet as possible but to him, his breathing sounded like the loudest thing in the world. A hostile could be anywhere, behind any tree, under any bush, waiting for him to make the first move.

Somehow, he had gotten separated from "Solo" and was now by himself and unsure where exactly he was. Disorientation from the first grenade he had thrown and their pursuers had taken the tactic of spreading out. How many had been taken out, Duo did not know but he knew they were still out there.

Duo crouched close to the ground, a ridge rising up behind him. He had actually fallen off of it but had scrambled up against it almost immediately. If he hadn't seen it when he had ran off it, no one else would know it was there so putting his back to it wasn't a harebrained idea.

His eyes darted from side to side, scanning around for any sign of movement. Nothing so far but that didn't mean he was alone. Muscles tensed as he waited for someone, anyone to mess up. Hopefully, it wouldn't be that tagalong of his who did and winded up with a bullet in his brain.

Off to a side, he heard a twig snap and he snapped his head around, spotting slight movement behind a tree. Someone was trying to sneak up on him. He waited a second, watched as a gray form seemed to gradually push itself out from behind the tree.

Duo was spotted but it was a bit late on the enemy's part. A couple of controlled bursts from his machine gun had the enemy hostile backing up behind the tree. As tree bark splintered from the bullets, Duo was dashing towards the tree, taking long strides as he tried to reach his destination as soon as possible. He saw something black, the guy's gun, starting to stick out from the other side of the tree but the braided one shot another controlled burst at the gun.

The machine gun was struck and it fell to the ground, out of the enemy combatant's hand. As the piece of military equipment thudded against the ground, Duo had reached the tree and was darting around it. He plowed into the camouflaged man from behind, knocking them both to the ground but before the man could respond, Duo had wrapped an arm around his head and gave it a real good twist. To be sure, he twisted the head around the other way, ensuring the man's neck was broken and another one was down for the count.

Bullets pelted the ground beside him and he threw himself down, bringing up the recently deceased corpse in front of him to act as a shield. A few thuds against the body and then Duo was returning fire. He heard a curse, something that told him he had hit someone, and shot another volley of bullets.

This time a thud from further away. He got another one, damn it. Peeking around the corpse, he saw another body up ahead, flat on its back.

Damn he was good.

Silence once again descended on the forest. Duo continued to lay where he was, lying as still as he could.

A distance away he heard a rat-tat-tat, another gun fight starting up and ending just as soon as it had begun. Jeez, this was getting on his nerves.

Up above, the helicopter was making a return, flying overhead. Duo still hadn't figured out how to get rid of that thing quite yet but then again, he was busy with all these trained killers down here.

There was a loud boom, one that made even him jump. That did not sound like a grenade, more like something bigger and—wait, what was that whistling sound—?

Another boom. Oh great, the 'copter was firing its missiles now. If it wasn't clear that these guys were here to kill, then it was plain as day now.

Could you hear the sarcasm in all that?

A quick look around and he was up on his feet, sprinting once again and heading in the direction he had heard the helicopter fly in. He stopped behind a couple trees, checking around to make sure that he wasn't about to be ambushed but right as he was heading for a third tree, he heard a rapid-fire gun shot.

Fire exploded in his shoulder and he fell to the ground limp. Fucking Christ, he had been tagged in his shoulder. Son of a bitch, it stung like a fucking motherfucker! It was still for a moment but then the footsteps started. Ah, so his shooter was still here and what do you know, they were closing in.

Wait for it, Duo. Wait for it…wait…for…

When he had judged that his shooter was close enough, he flipped onto his back and held the trigger on his stolen M-16, letting loose an unceasing flow of bullets that sprayed into the asshole who dared to shoot him. Idiot hadn't had his gun raised in case he had been faking. The caliber of these guys chasing them was not top tier, was it?

He clutched at his shoulder, grinding his teeth together as the wound jostled with each motion he made. How could he have been so careless? Now was not the time for this kind of shit.

Back on his feet and off he went, moving slower this time around but still heading for where he heard the noise of a helicopter propeller grow louder. The sight of flames licking at leaves and trees was a sign of where one of the missiles had hit and up ahead, he could see an enemy combatant descending from up on the air, holding onto a rope. Reinforcements?

There was another on his way down and Duo knew that he couldn't wait too long. Otherwise, he'd be overwhelmed but at the same time, the 'copter could move to a different location and drop more men.

But what other choice did he have?

He fired at the man on the ground, killing him almost instantly but it was back to finding cover as the man in the air stopped his descent to shoot back at him. Bullets rained down on him from high up in the air, someone in the 'copter providing some cover fire for their man on the rope.

Duo chanced a couple times to shoot back but could never last too long. The shoulder wound was not letting him ignore it and the enemy cover fire was a bit much. Before he knew it, the man was on the ground, still tethered to the rope and firing at his position, determined to kill him before letting himself loose.

That was when "Solo" showed up. Duo didn't know when he popped up but one second he wasn't there, the next he was. The blond ensnared the tethered enemy from behind, an arm wrapped tightly around the man's neck. With the other, the blond directed the M-16 up towards the helicopter, the gun still firing.

The enemy man struggled in "Solo's" hold, almost getting free but not quite. He let go of his machine gun, the gunfire stopping as soon as he did to focus more on "Solo." The two bent over, "Solo" pressed up against the man from above, as the machine gun fell harmlessly to the ground.

Duo could see elbow jabs land against "Solo's" sides and he was surprised to see "Solo" not acknowledge them at all, not even with a grimace or anything. Instead, with one arm busy holding the enemy against him, "Solo" reached up and grabbed the military-grade rope with a hand and harshly pull down on it.

Today seemed to be a day of surprises because Duo swore that the impossible had happened.

As "Solo" pulled down on the rope, the helicopter was actually pulled down along with it. The helicopter's movements were erratic as the pilot struggled to right the airborne craft but "Solo" was not making it easy. A jerk of his arm to the left had the helicopter moving in the same direction and another jerk to the right had the same result.

By now, the helicopter was still hovering in the air but the cockpit was now visible, its front pointed towards the earth and the tail propeller high in the air. Duo recognized the opportunity and took advantage of it, firing straight at the cockpit. He didn't let up once, hoping that just one bullet, just one, would incapacitate the pilot and ground this hunk of junk.

He stopped shooting as a small plume of smoke began leaking from the windshield, the helicopter starting to lean on its side unsteadily. At that time, "Solo" release his grip on the rope and the enemy he was holding onto and the next thing Duo knew, that helicopter was off.

The tethered man went flying, crying out in terror until his body slammed into a mess of tree branches and got stuck. The cries turned into screams of agony until there was a splattering sound and body parts came tumbling down from above.

A couple seconds later there was an explosion, the helicopter taken out of commission.

Once again, silence fell upon on the forest except this time it was more of a peaceful kind, the type that always came after some sort of disaster had occurred.

Duo panted as he stared in the general direction of where he had last seen the helicopter go, the aches of his body beginning to make themselves known again. The shoulder wound was throbbing and that at last had him sink down to the ground, resting on his ass as he gripped the wound once more.

Looking up, he saw "Solo" approach him, his face completely bland without any sign that the blond had just done what he had done.

To say the least, that irritated Duo to no end.

"What the hell was that?" he demanded.

"Solo's" eyes spotted his shoulder. "You have been injured."

"No shit, Sherlock," Duo retorted. "Don't change the subject; how did you fucking do that? No normal person does that, not even someone trained in the army!"

"At this point in time, I am unable to answer you satisfactorily," "Solo" answered as he bent down, reaching towards his shoulder.

"Hey. Hey! What do you think you're…?" Duo demanded, alarmed.

""You need medical attention for your wound," "Solo" replied as his larger hands pried Duo's away easily. Duo tried to resist but remember, this guy had pulled a fucking helicopter down several feet just by yanking on a rope. The blond lookalike, tore the hole made in Duo's outfit wider so that he had more access to the wound yet despite his earlier feat of strength, Duo was surprised by how gently those beefy fingers prodded at his injury.

Still hurt like a bitch, though.

Duo would also have you know he didn't make a sound. He ain't no pussy, you know.

"Appears to be an exit wound," "Solo" stated. "There is probably a reciprocating hole on the opposite side."

"It's clean through?" Duo deciphered.

"Appears to be. The bleeding needs to be stymied, however."

Great, more first aid. His arm was already starting to go numb, most likely due to the blood loss he was suffering.

"Let me guess, did someone order you to give medical attention on a battlefield," Duo said sarcastically.

"You seem to know a lot about me despite the fact we have only met just recently," "Solo" stated as he tore off one of his sleeves, ripping it further into small strips.

Duo found himself staring at the muscled arm, one that was a bit too defined. So let's see what he had found out: incredible strength, military training, monotonic speech, knowledge in battlefield medicine. It was all adding up to something and Duo knew he didn't like it.

Oh, let's not forget the fact that the guy also bore a criminal resemblance to a very old and very dead friend.

A friend who was reminding him more and more of Heero by the—oh God fucking damn it! No matter how many times he got hurt, the dressing of the wound was always a painful affair, especially when there wasn't any painkillers around.

Alright, back to what he was thinking, though his shoulder was still protesting. Right, he was reminded of Heero…perhaps a little too much of Heero. And why was Heero Heero? Well, he was trained since he was a kid to kill, spoke almost in a monotone for quite some time…could fix a broken bone…could bend steel bars with some effort…and all that was for the purpose of creating a soldier for a war that had yet to happen.

Duo felt dread in his gut. Was that what was happening here? Was someone trying to start a new war and training the guy right beside him to carry it out?

The flashdrive. It had to have something on it. What exactly, Duo did not know but whatever it was, it had to be huge.

"That should limit further damage," "Solo" stated as he finished with the dressing. "Further treatment will be required."

Duo looked down at his dressed wound and back at the blond who was a bit too close for comfort right about now. Whether he was even taught about or ordered to give personal space, Duo didn't know but was starting to think that maybe someone ought to teach him about it.

He had a feeling that it was going to be him.

"Fine," he sighed, "just…let's just get out of here. Far away as possible. Find some sign of civilization and then maybe start figuring out what's going on with you. I think I might have the first clue to doing that."

"Why are you so interested?" "Solo" asked. "Why is it so important for you to know so much about me?"

"Because you might just be a piece of something big. Very big and very bad," Duo answered frankly.

"And once you find out just what it is, then what will you do?" "Solo" pressed. "You are dress similarly to the men that were tracking us. Are you in the employ of someone and if so who?"

Duo gave some thought about it. "Solo" was catching on to what he himself was about. Can't say the guy was slow but then again he had probably figured out that there was a reason for his infiltration of that base. Hell, even somebody slow and stupid would be able to figure that out.

That wasn't what was on his mind though. Now that he had a reminder that yes, someone was expecting him back at a certain place, at a certain time, and to give certain information…

Then when you add in his little suspicions of his new pal here, that brought up the question that was weighing most heavily on his mind at the moment.

How would the guys react to this guy? Especially if they had the same suspicions as he did?

…he couldn't lie because that was against his own life philosophy of always running and hiding but never telling a lie. And since everyone he spent most of his time with had sharp minds and sharp eyes…yeah, that would not be very conductive to keeping this guy here alive.

A glance to that familiar face and he knew, oh Duo knew in his heart, that he could not turn him in. Not yet anyway. No, he not only couldn't but he wouldn't. He wouldn't keep being a lapdog who had to report in to others, working at a job that he hated, and lastly tighten the metaphorical leash that was attached to his neck.

If he was going to solve this mystery that was smack-dab in his lap, he was going to have to do it solo. Well, not quite alone but you get the idea. This had a bad idea written all over it but naturally he ignored that kind of thing. Taking the suggestion to steal Deathscythe and wage a one-man war on the Alliance had been like that and here he was still, alive and kicking.

No matter the odds, the circumstances, the adversity, he always somehow managed to land on his feet.

Time to cast that die again and hope for lucky number seven.

"I'm not going to do anything until I find out what's going on around here," he stated, his voice strong. "First, let's get me fixed up and then find out just what my partner was able to copy."

"You are not answering my question," "Solo" stated, the beginnings of a frown starting to crease his face. "You are just giving me more questions."

"Stick with me…and I'll give you some answers," Duo compromised. "I could use a pair of eyes to watch my six. I have a feeling that this is going to be dangerous and mind-blowingly fatal. Fortunately, that's the way I like it."

"Why do I feel as if I am making some kind of mistake?" "Solo" asked as he helped Duo up when the braided one held a hand out for some assistance.

"That's just the part of your brain that's devoted to survival," Duo shrugged. "Nice to know you have one. Listen to it; people around me have a tendency to die."


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Note: I see all the hits and it makes me happy that people are reading. I don't know why though because I have been out of this fandom long enough to get rusty. I feel a bit of a disconnect but you know what, if people keeping clinking on this link, it means I'm doing something, right? Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Warning: language

Chapter 5

A clear night sky, twinkling with numerous stars, was not a thing you can find in a city where the lights muddied the heavens above. It would be a rare sight for any urban dweller but it was also a sight that was ignored as two shadowy figures snuck into the small hamlet unseen.

Crickets continued to chirp, oblivious to the strangers who headed towards the town's clinic with determined purpose. The medical center looked like a family-oriented business, a place where you would find trusted physicians and a basket of lollipops for the kids after their wellness checks.

It also had a backdoor that was locked.

The two figures reached the door after being directed towards it by the shorter of the two. The larger one tried to handle the door knob but was shooed away by the shorter figure who reached into a long braid of hair that trailed them.

A small wire was produced and the figure fiddled with the doorknob before the lock opened, the door following.

Once inside, the two figures made their way to the first windowless room they could find before either one dared to turn on a light. Duo let out a sigh as he sank into a chair that, as it turned out, was a physician's office. His shoulder was killing him and the only good thing that he could find about it was that his arm hadn't gone numb.

He could still feel his fingers though he was a bit worried about how his fingertips felt a bit dead. Hopefully the wound had clotted by now so that more blood would be getting to his extremity and less would be spilling out the two holes in his body.

Okay, what to do first. Health seemed like a good place to start so riffling through the medical cabinets was in order. Some ibuprofen, bandages, and disinfectant, by God let's not forget about the disinfectant, were the orders of the day. Would he be able to trust "Solo" to go find these things while he rested right here? Since this was his first time out of that base, perhaps he ought to go get the stuff himself.

It wasn't that he didn't trust "Solo" to get the stuff; he just didn't know if he knew what to look for. That and when trying to keep a low profile, messing up the medicine cabinets was not the way to do such a thing. He would have to do it.

"Come with me," he told the blond who stood at attention…he supposed. "Gotta find some things."

"I could find them," "Solo" volunteered.

"Could you find these things without making a mess?" he asked. "There's a finesse to this and we're trying to remain low, remember? A doctor showing up in the morning to find a mess gets attention. I'll go, you'll follow, and if you're good, I'll let you fix me up."

He meant the last part as a joke and was disappointed when there wasn't a smile on that familiar face. Yeah, he had to remember this wasn't the same person from over a decade ago but a stranger with the same face. The lack of sense of humor was all the evidence he needed here.

Out of the doctor's office and into the supplies center where small amounts of various medical equipment, tools, and drugs were held so that the doctor wouldn't have to trek to the supplies storage all the time. Duo took a good look at the various medicine cabinets, making sure that they hadn't been restocked before the clinic was closed up. The first few cabinets were indeed restocked but the last couple had yet to be. A bit unprofessional but it would work in his favor.

Opening a cabinet, he scanned through the contents, searching for anything that he was looking for. No ibuprofen…no bandages…and damn it no disinfectant. Next cabinet! Hmm…no, nothing in that one either. Just a bunch of syringes, tongue depressors, and vaccine bottles. None of them were what he was looking for either.

Okay, next one and the last one not restocked…okay, there was disinfectant here. Oh, there was the spray kind and the injection kind. Best to grab two of those. That mean a little backtracking for a syringe…best to grab two of those. Hand them to "Solo" and stress to him to be careful. And was there any…yes! Ibuprofen! Sweet, delicious pain killers! And in strawberry flavoring too!

That left the bandages and those weren't in the medicine cabinets outside of Band-Aids. What about the cabinets under the counter? Jackpot! …and they had be restocked. He so did not want to go to the storage but he didn't want to compromise their secrecy either.

A bit ironic since he had been the one to give his position away back at the base.

Hmm, wait, what if…? Yeah, he didn't take one from the front; instead he moved some out of the way and grabbed a roll that was more towards the middle. Then he replaced all the rolls he had moved back into their original positions. Hopefully there wouldn't be a huge emergency in which someone would have to raid this cabinet but then a lot of bandages would be used in such a thing.

As long as there was no sign of any raiding going on here, tonight, no one would be the wiser. And besides, unless they were informed immediately, no one would connect the dots.

At least, that's what he hoped.

Back into the office, Duo stripped off his shirt and upper body apparel. Next came off the remnants of "Solo's" sleeve and Duo grimaced as the blood soaked cloth peeled off his skin. Yeah, he could see that the blood had clotted in his wound but damn it was an ugly sight. They were going to have to clean this bitch up too, weren't they?

"Go into one of the examination rooms," he instructed. "Make sure to find some paper towels. If it's on a roll, the better. No one will be missing those. Just don't take the entire thing, okay? Can I count on you?"

A few minutes later and in a bathroom, it appeared that "Solo" could follow his logic a bit. Since the bathroom had one of those air dryers, it was lucky he had sent "Solo" out for the towels. There was no way an air dryer was going to wipe away all this shit. Duo thought for a second that maybe he should check out if "Solo" had picked up the long stream of brown paper he held from a "safe" spot.

Fuck it, he'd worried about it later.

Ripping the long trail of paper, he wadded up the ripped off portion and wetted it, beginning to wipe away the grime and blood away from his wound. "Solo" was taking charge of his back and he was a bit surprised at the gentleness the blond was exhibiting. Duo himself wasn't being that nice to himself as he was scrubbing more than he was wiping.

Eventually, the area was cleaned up and now it was time for the pain part. The disinfectant; how was he going to administer it? Use the futuristic spray or inject the shit into the wound? It was the same brand of antibiotic, just difference in administration. Well, the bullet had gone straight through him…

Distracting himself for a second, he opened up the small box of ibuprofen and took out the small bottle from the packaging. Taking off the childproof cap, he shook out two pills. Ooh, the liquid gel type.

Gulp.

Turning his head enough so that he could look at "Solo" over his shoulder, he held up a syringe.

"Be gentle."

* * *

><p>Properly tended to and dressed in clean bandages, Duo resumed his seat back at the doctor's desk where he took out the small flashdrive that he had been carrying for so long.<p>

The answers to so many questions were on this thing. They had better be worth all this.

The doctor's computer was not up to date, a bit bulky by most standards with none of the sleekness that kids seemed to like nowadays. Starting up the machine was simple and hacking through the first firewall was child's play. He plugged the flashdrive into the modem as he waited for the computer's settings to set up. After that, it was simple enough to access the flashdrive.

Man, how much did Trowa copy? There was just so much…it'd take days to go through it all.

It didn't help that the files didn't have names of their own. They were mostly File G0014 or File GX09R. There was no rhyme or reason to it all. Glancing up at "Solo" who was looking over his shoulder at the screen, he asked, "Does any of this make any sense to you?"

"No." Quick, short, and straight to the point. Not even an attempt to feign arrogance or know what it meant. Too honest for a guy that only knew how to kill other people and dress injuries.

"I guess we'll start with this one," Duo said out loud, clicking on the file titled File G0001. Maybe it was because it had a one and a few zeros in front of it that he chose that one first.

Well, whatever the reason, the computer took a few seconds to load up the file, a sign that this was one big file. Once the appropriate program was opened, a Word document flashed onto the screen. The document itself was zoomed out so that the entire page took up the screen and from a glance over, Duo had to say it looked like some kind of proposal.

Zooming in and scrolling up to the top, Duo read out loud, "Project Goliath?"

Nothing from "Solo" so Duo kept on reading, this time not saying anything out loud. It wasn't like he'd get an answer anyway.

As he read further, he really didn't like where this was going. What this proposal was proposing to do was to research and develop a new weapon, one that would change the way wars were fought. There seemed to be an emphasis on soldiers, in particular their limits. As Duo found, the project wanted to correct those limitation by taking the human part of a solider but where that led up to weapon development, nothing had been stated quite yet.

Duo wasn't really the type of person who read research proposals for fun so some of the terminology and jargon flew over his head. What he did get out of it, though, was that whoever Derrick Wallace was, he was the man who would know a lot about it. All this stuff about the history of warfare and how just being human was detrimental to the pursuit of war was…ugh.

He had had enough of war; a lifetime of it was more than enough for anybody.

"See anything that means anything to you?" he asked "Solo" just to ask him. He didn't like the thought behind the words "trying to separate humanity from war is an exercise in futility and to try such is to court certain disaster." Whoever this Wallace was, he did not have a lot of faith in the human race. Not that Duo had faith in humans himself; he had seen too much of humanity's dark side to ever accept any of it at face value.

Still, it was obvious Wallace had never met the Vice Foreign Minister. Relena would talk the guy's ear off with her views of pacifism.

"Nothing," "Solo" finally answered after a few minutes of silence.

"Shouldn't have expected much," Duo shrugged. "After all, this thing dates back to…AC 175? Holy shit, that's twenty five years ago! That was back when the Alliance was…which explains why they were using an old Alliance base…"

"The Alliance? Who are they?" "Solo" asked.

"Officially, they were called the Earth Sphere Alliance and were led by a bunch of corrupt military autocrats," Duo answered, not seeing anything wrong by telling "Solo" about it. "They oppressed the Colonies up in Space, declared martial law when it became too hard for them to maintain control. They were overthrown during the Eve Wars by an organization called OZ who in turn tried to replace them as corrupt military autocrats. It's a long story."

"Colonies…they used to round up civilians with unsubstantial charges of disrupting the peace and assault homeless children?" "Solo" asked.

"Yeah, they certainly did that," Duo confirmed, a wry grin on his face. That grin vanished almost instantly as he grasped just what the blond had said. "Wait a sec, how did you know about that?" he demanded, frowning at "Solo." "I thought you didn't know anything outside of that base."

"I was instructed about the Colonies but I do not believe I was told about children," "Solo" said. "I…do not know why I know about such a thing."

"Better stop figuring out because I'm really not buying the story of you accepting everything at face value," Duo stated.

"How do you know about the Alliance?" "Solo" replied with a question.

"I lived it," Duo stated bluntly, not bothering to hide the bitterness in his voice. "Those bastards were a bunch of criminals, no better than the scum on the streets. The only difference between them was that they got to clean up and look pretty with their clean clothes and shiny medals."

"Solo" was silent after that but Duo didn't care. He closed the document and moved on to the next one. He didn't stay with that one long mainly because there were a bunch of diagrams of some oversized tube. How something like that related to weapons development, he did not know but if he found anything that related to it, he'd go back to it.

A couple more files were open, one just rehashing what the first file said while the other was a request order for various chemicals and serums. That last file was leading him to believe that perhaps the weapon that this Wallace guy was proposing to make was a chemical one, a dirty bomb if you will.

That was a thought that was not a happy one to dwell on.

Before he could open another file, he was rudely stopped by the sound of a door closing from far away. Since "Solo" was right next to him, that meant that someone else was here.

Oh shit.

"Hide!" he hissed at the blond. "We have company!"

He hurried to shut the computer off, ignoring whatever "Solo" might want to say. He dismissed the words he did catch with a wave of a hand, telling the other to forget about it and just hide. He could hear footsteps and he turned the desk lamp off, hoping the darkness that descended upon the office would buy him a few more seconds. Unfortunately, just turning off the lamp didn't buy him more time. The footsteps were still coming and telling from how long it took between steps, he had maybe ten, fifteen seconds before whoever it was arrived at the door.

Come on you slow piece of shit. Turn off! He had to get that flashdrive out of there but he didn't want to risk damaging the files on it. They were too precious to be risked. Come on, come on, hurry up!

The screen had just turn black just as the doorknob began to shake, a hand on the other side of the door gripping the handle. With time out and no way to get to a hiding place without making a lot of suspicious noise, Duo slid out of the chair and slipped under the desk. He pulled the chair behind him so that it was back in the place where he had first seen it when he and "Solo" had arrived here.

The door opened and the footsteps were making their way towards the desk. Duo could only pray at this point that whoever it was, they weren't going to be sitting down.

There was a click, the desk lamp being turned on, the chair rolled backwards on its wheels. Oh shit, oh shit, things were not looking good.

Something was slid open, a desk drawer Duo figured. In fact, it was the drawer that was currently directly above his head. There was some rustling, as if someone was shifting through some junk and was that Greek he was hearing being mumbled? Didn't sound quite right to be Greek. Could just be a dialect, though.

The drawer was slid closed and the chair pushed back into place. Duo kept his breathing steady, doing his best to keep at still as possible. He was starting to think that perhaps this person, the doctor obviously, was only here to pick something up that he had forgotten about. There had been an uplifting of his voice, as if there was some relief he was feeling. Probably found what he was looking for.

Duo found himself frowning as he suddenly heard a scuffling sound. Then he recalled that he wasn't alone here. He dreaded the fact that "Solo" might not be averse to sitting around and letting the doctor leave without incident. In fact…

Peeking out from where he hid, Duo was appalled to see "Solo" holding the doctor in a choke hold, the doctor's face beginning to turn blue at this point. So much for keeping a low profile, eh?

Out from under the desk, he roared, "Let him go you idiot!"

Not showing he was startled by the angry outburst, "Solo" obeyed, letting go of the doctor without any attempt to keep him from falling to the floor. Duo scrambled to catch the man, aggravating his shoulder injury as he sank slowly to the floor, holding the unconscious man.

For a couple heartbeats, he waited for the figurative other shoe to drop. Nothing happened, though, no other person had entered the clinic to see what was taking the doctor so long or anything else like that.

However, that still left the unconscious man in his arms with a slightly bruised neck.

"What did you think you were doing?" Duo hissed up at the blond.

"Incapacitating the unknown," "Solo" answered.

"He's a civilian! A non-combatant!" Duo reprimanded. "Did those guys ever teach you not to hurt someone who's unarmed or not a threat? Were you trying to kill this guy? Leaving a body behind is the last thing we need."

"You were not complaining back in the forest," "Solo" pointed out.

"That was because those guys knew we were there and were trying to kill us," Duo retorted. "This guy didn't know we were here and he wasn't trying to cause us any harm! This fucking leaves a bad taste in my mouth." Checking to make sure the doctor was still alive, he sighed. "At least he's still living. How the hell are we going to cover this up?"

Spotting the chair and the doctor's desk, an idea came to him. It wouldn't conceal everything but it would buy a little time.

"Help me get him to the chair," he commanded. "We do this just right, people will think he just fell asleep after coming back to the office. Might be curious about the bruising but we might get lucky and they'll pass it off as some freak occurrence. Hopefully."

"Would it not be—" "Solo" began to ask but Duo cut him off.

"No. Killing him will only bring attention and if those guys are still looking for us, finding a dead man at a medical center will clue them in that we were here. Let's just get this guy set up and get out of here before we test whatever luck we have left."

"Then what?" "Solo asked as he easily hefted the unconscious man into his arms.

"Find some other place to look at those files," Duo grumbled as he got up to his feet. "I have an idea where we can go. In the meantime, we might want to get some new threads and find some sort of transportation out of this town. The more distance we put between us and them, the better."

* * *

><p>Wufei studied the smoking, metal husk that had once been the cab of a helicopter, and an armed one at that. There didn't appear to be any sign of something hitting it or blowing it out of the sky so he was mystified by how the military aircraft ended up where it was and in its current condition.<p>

Helicopters don't drop out of the sky and become smoking heaps like this. Something had to hit it or it had to run into something hard enough to throw it off its trajectory. The fire had destroyed any clue that might suggest to how this aircraft onto the ground.

And of course, Maxwell had to be involved.

There were bodies around, some still in the helicopter, some outside of it, some were burned, some killed from the impact of hitting the ground from a high height. He could see an arm and a leg sticking out from beneath the metal shell, suggesting two or more people had been crushed under the helicopter.

All were dead and there were quite a few other bodies strewn around the area. The bodies found not close to the helicopter wreckage had all the signs of being shot or physically assaulted. From the states of some of the trees, a gunfight was not far off from what may have happened.

One question to be asked was who were these men and why were they all the way out here, dead? Another was, was Maxwell still alive and if so where was he now?

Wufei was in no way put aback by all the signs of violence but his patience was not holding up against trying to find their errant comrade. Both Winner and Barton were canvasing the area, searching for any clue Maxwell may have left behind that might point them in the right direction.

In the meantime, they had a small crew of Preventers crawling over the area, also searching for some answers while securing the scene. He had overheard from a few agents that a larger force had convened where the compound was and was busy obtaining it. He had yet to hear whether or not they were having any trouble but if they did, it wouldn't be long before they received a call to back them up.

Back to what he was supposed to be doing, Wufei turned around from the wreckage when nothing noteworthy could be discovered. Perhaps Winner and Barton were having better luck. Winner seemed to have some kind of uncanny talent to pick up clues that most people would miss or not see whatsoever. Barton, on the other hand, had been taking some seminars and classes on tracking, "taken on a whim" as the taller agent once remarked.

Wufei was more inclined to rest his hopes on anything Barton could find than Winner though he knew he couldn't dismiss anything the blond might find or come up with.

He found Winner first who was giving a strange look towards one of the dead men. There was some sorrow mixed in with the ambiguous emotions the blond was displaying. It was as if he was mourning the man while asking him why he would want to continuing fighting. It was futile asking because Wufei had come to the terms that there were just some people who would never be satisfied with the way things were and would try to force their views on others.

He didn't dare to say it out loud but he had more than a suspicion that this time of pacifism may in itself be a pointless exercise. There was always someone dissatisfied and trying to impose their will on others through violence and force. Trying to stop them all was just so exhausting and it seemed like they had found another cell of men with the same intentions of all the others he had confronted.

He had dedicated himself to upholding the peace that he and so many others had fought and died for and so he would not complain. He would fight a hundred, a thousand of the small rebellious groups so long as humanity was not plunged into another war.

"Anything?" he asked Winner, pushing these thoughts to a side so that he could dwell on them later. Right now, he had to focus on finding Maxwell.

"Other than there being a struggle?" Winner answered with a question. "Take a close look at this guy. See anything odd?"

Raising an eyebrow, Wufei did as was suggested but didn't really see anything. He didn't have to answer because it seemed like Winner was reading his mind.

"His head," Winner stated. "It's backwards."

Backwards? Odd term to use but…oh. Though lying on his back, the man's face was not visible as it was planted into the ground. But that was just it, a person couldn't lay on their back with their face in the dirt, not like this. The head had to be twisted all the way around, unnaturally so, in order for it to get like this.

It would have taken a lot of physical strength to do such a thing. It was a kind of strength that Wufei knew Maxwell didn't possess.

"It doesn't look like an accident and there's no way a fall from high up could do this," Winner continued to observe for the Chinese nationality. "Someone did this…manually. Intentionally." Winner had paused between the words, as if trying to find the right word but also trying not to think about how it could come about.

"It appears that way," Wufei agreed cautiously, looking away from the body to search for Barton. He didn't like to think of the scenario that Winner was alluding to.

Barton was nowhere to be found, or at least not within sight. Wufei was going to have to search for the other but at least looking for Barton would take his mind off of the disturbing thoughts Winner had planted in his head.

It didn't take long to find Barton; if anything, it was Barton who found him. He had stepped out from behind some brush only a few yards away from him and as soon as that forest green eye spotted him, Barton waved at him to come over. Looked like Barton had found something as well, hopefully not as disturbing as Winner's find.

Catching up to the ex-pilot, he followed after Barton when the other took the lead, guiding him to what looked like a manmade clearing. He could see an impact site where a missile had detonated, probably done so that the men riding in the helicopter could have an unobstructed landing site. A couple bodies here and there led credence to that theory but it was to an unremarkable tree that Barton called his attention to.

Wufei didn't say a word, just let his facial expression ask the question instead which Barton did not comply with immediately. Instead he crouched down to the ground, keeping a few feet between him and the tree. Thinking that he was playing the same game that Winner was, Wufei tried to move in closer only for Barton to stop him.

"Not too close," Barton warned. "You'll mess up the scene."

"And what precisely is in this scene?" Wufei asked, keeping his sarcasm from leaking out.

"Here," Barton stated as he directed his attention to the disturbed ground. "Someone sat right here. Used the tree to recline against."

"And you know this how?" Wufei asked, his frustration starting to grow.

"Blood," Barton answered as he pointed out a dark spot of bark. Now that Wufei saw it, he could see a stain, one that wasn't large but not small either and trailing beneath it were dried traces where blood had trickled downwards. So someone had been injured when they sat against the tree?

"Do you know who it was?" Wufei asked.

"Duo," Barton stated.

"Why do you say that?"

"This."

Barton's hand drew close to the base of the tree, his fingers pinching at something that Wufei could not detect. As they drew away, Barton brought his hand closer to Wufei where something incredibly thin waved around the appendage.

"Do you know of anyone else who leaves hairs this long in their wake?" Barton asked his wryly as Wufei got a real good look at the hair.

Indeed, there was some impressive length to it. Now that he was focusing on the hair, he could see that Barton was careful to hold an end of the hair, the rest of it literally trailing against the ground where the other end was still touching the tree, ensnared by tree bark.

"How do you know it isn't somebody else's?" Wufei argued, however. It was best to explore all possibilities than stick to just one on the onset.

"I thought about that," Barton replied. "All the bodies we've found thus far have short hair and even the longest of those is nowhere near this length."

"It could be that the person is still alive and managed to leave before we arrived," Wufei pointed out.

"True, but bleeding? We both know that Duo's a good shot so any wound he would make in a confrontation is not to be taken lightly," Barton explained. "There's too little blood; there should be more in that case."

"So you would say it's Maxwell who was sitting here, bleeding?" Wufei clarified.

"That's my conclusion," Barton answered. "There is something else that troubles me. If you look right here…"

Wufei looked to where Barton was gesturing towards this time. Not even a foot away, he saw another disruption in the undergrowth. If the area in front of him was mushed flatly, the spot nearby looked more crunched and oblong, like someone was crouching.

"See right there?" Barton said. "Someone rested their foot right there. Look closer and you can see that the person wasn't wearing a boot. The grass and leaves would be more crunched and broken if there was a boot. Instead, it's more smoothed. The person was probably wearing a moccasin or slipper of sorts. And here, they rested more on their leg than their seat."

"What does it mean?" Wufei asked, frowning unabashed.

"It could mean a number of things, unfortunately," Barton responded. "A local could have wandered by, saw Duo, and tried to help him. One of his pursuers caught up with him and captured him. There's no sign that Duo struggled so he may have been unconscious. I haven't been able to tell how he left just yet."

"What do you believe happened?" Wufei pressed. "What is your opinion?"

"I'm leaning more towards the first option," Barton stated. "It's probably an optimistic choice but at least Duo was coherent and able to move."

"So perhaps we should search the closest hospitals or medical clinics," Winner said, alerting the two of them to his presence. "Someone would have to remember if they saw him. The braid, if anything, would stand out."

"Alright, we search the nearest towns first," Wufei decided. "If injured, Maxwell would at least try and tend to the wound, make sure it was taken care of enough so that he could make it to a trained professional."

"Reported break-ins at any clinics," Barton concluded. "Duo would try to make it to a city hospital where there's more to go around. A stop at a rural clinic would allow him to get only what he needed to stabilize the wound he received."

"I'll make the call," Winner volunteered as he left the other two ex-pilots.

Wufei continued to look at the disturbed ground, though, looking for any possible clue that might have been missed. He trusted that Barton would have found everything that could be found but you never knew what may have been looked over.

It bothered him slightly that there had been someone else other than Maxwell in this spot. Who would be roving around this forest? They had to have heard the gunshots and the explosions so why weren't they scared off? Was it another idealist who couldn't get the clue to keep their noses out of other people's business?

The last thing they needed was another Relena getting involved with this.

Ultimately, he found nothing that Barton had already found so he left to search for anything else if only to keep himself busy. He wanted to get what should have been a routine assignment over with so that he could get back to the work he had to put on hold.

He didn't like complications and hated when everything became convoluted. This was definitely something that put a wrench in things. What could Maxwell have been thinking in there? Was he starting to come loose? Would he become a threat to future missions? To the peace they all sacrificed for?

He had all those questions and more and he was determined to have them answered. The moment they got their hands on Maxwell, he had a lot of explaining to do…


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Note: Boring chapter here but you might find a couple answers to what's going on in this chapter. That is, if you pay close attention. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Warning: language, violence

Chapter 6

Duo had committed many crimes in his day, everything ranging from stealing, larceny, and loitering to arson, terrorism, and mass murder, i.e. war. Grand theft auto had never been a crime he had ever contemplated but now it was just another notch on his belt of his illustrious criminal career.

Accomplices tended to come and go, though, so it wasn't really an issue that he had a certain blond shadow in the passenger seat beside him. Sometimes he had a partner, sometimes he didn't. So long as they didn't tattle on him, he could care less about having one or not.

For this crime, it was him who had taken the wheel of the vehicle. He had no clue whether "Solo" knew how to drive and he hadn't asked yet. He didn't want to chance it for more than just the possibility of "Solo" knowing how to drive; there was also the fact that only Duo knew where he wanted to go, knew how to get there, and knew about the driving laws.

That way, he could get them into Sanc, the last place anyone would look for them if they indeed were still looking for them. For one thing, it was here that the main Preventers headquarters was based and another was that the Preventers themselves wouldn't think to look for him here. Who in their right mind would go to where the seat of the Preventers' power was located?

Exactly.

And there was one other reason why he wanted to come here. He had a little locker here, one that had various fake IDs and currency that he could use in case he was involved in an undercover assignment or he needed to lay low.

A quick stop to the locker and from there to find another computer. He already had a plan for the latter of that statement so he wasn't worried about it. It was getting to the locker that had most of his attention. It was located in the part of Sanc that wasn't put in the brochures or even mentioned on the travel channels.

No one wanted to believe that Sanc had its own slums, that it was affected by poverty like anywhere else. But you know what they say, the brighter the picture, the darker the negative and damn were these slums bad.

Ignored and neglected, some of the people there were on par with poor L2 colonists in ruthlessness and brutality. The difference between the two was that Sanc slum dwellers weren't as sophisticated in their criminal activities and were, quite frankly, stupid criminals. They were inventive in their crimes but nothing was foolproof and they were certainly fools.

He didn't mean to pick on these poor folk but he had some pride in his status as a survivor of L2 poverty. It was a standard, really. A badge of honor almost.

Still, if you wanted to disappear quickly, the Sanc Kingdom slums were the place to do it.

He had spent the past couple of days psyching himself up for this. This ordeal was going to be a long one, made harder only by the fact of "Solo." That guy was going to attract all sorts of attention just by getting out of the car. The two of them were going to be surrounded by predators, pure and simple.

That was also a reason why he had taken it upon himself to try and coach the blond in social behaviors. Yeah, "Solo" was big and strong and could strategize with the best of them but he had no idea how to be subtle or blend in with a crowd. With that emotionless face, the upright posture, and the strict stride, only a blind person wouldn't be able to tell that he was different.

If he was going to have to do this, he was not going to go into the lions' den with a Heero personality, no way no how. And damn it, why was he always paired up with the Heero personality anyway? He hated those types because they were so single-minded and _boring_. The only thing you could count on them to do is to get the job done, that was it.

"You remember the plan, right?" he asked the blond, interrupting the silence that had fallen over the two the minute they entered the city.

"I do," "Solo" answered, staring straight ahead.

"Put some annoyance into that," Duo stated, not taking his eyes off the road as he slowed the car down as he made a right turn. "That was the sixth time I asked you that question. Most people can't get beyond four without wanting to hit you."

"Why is it necessary for me to express emotion?" "Solo" asked, genuinely curious though it didn't reflect in his voice.

"That's what normal people do," Duo explained, "and if you want to blend in with a crowd of normal people, you have to act like a normal person. You gotta project the body language of your surroundings. Emotion goes hand in hand with that. If you're relaxed, it's going to show in how you move, how you speak, and how other people see you. Now if you're like you, all flat and emotionless, people will notice. They won't call you out on it but they will notice ya more. And if you stick out like that, who will they remember more?"

"Sounds logical," "Solo" said.

"Another thing, the language man," Duo added. "Not to pick on you but I have not seen anybody speak in perfect grammar before. Then again, that could just be me. Still, use some contractions, try to use simpler words, and every once in a while, use some slang. Do anything that makes you sound less like a computer."

"How would you know what a computer sounds like?" "Solo" wondered.

"You don't want to know," Duo grumbled.

"You seem like you are trying to distract yourself from something."

"I am. What we're about to do might get us killed for no reason other than for someone to get a hit."

"A what?"

"Lesson in slang, a hit is taking a dose of some kind of illegal drug. Gives a person a high that doesn't last long so they go from hour to hour, trying to get another hit."

"I did not know that."

"Rephrase that for me, would ya? Change that 'did not' to didn't. Go ahead, give it a try."

"I…didn't know that?"

"You're making progress, I could tell that was a question right there."

"I am—"

"I'm."

"What?"

"I'm. It's I and am with an apostrophe. Another contraction."

"I am—"

"I'm."

"…I'm…confused…"

"Better."

"Why are you so insistent about this?"

"Because where we're heading, the more you blend in the better. Just someone getting a wrong impression of you can get you attacked and/or killed. I know you can take care of yourself but what I want is to do this thing as quick and painless as possible."

"You seem so sure about the danger."

"I have a sixth sense for danger. The only thing I can't tell is whether I'm heading into it or away from it."

"I am…I'm beginning to become concerned about my well-being."

"You and me both."

"If this is so dangerous, why are you taking us to it?"

"A good question with no good answer. Let's just say that I left some items there in case things didn't work out for me. That way I could walk by, pick them up, then go on about my way as quickly as possible without anyone being the wiser."

"Does it have anything to do with your organization turning against you? Have they already?"

The million dollar question, the one that Duo had thought of before but did not like to ponder on. He had explained to the other about the Preventers, what they goals were, how they accomplished things, and all that jazz. "Solo" had been very content about it, not showing any worry about it except to ask if whether he, Duo, was going to turn him in to them or if he should consider them as an enemy.

That only reminded Duo that "Solo" knew nothing about the state of worldly affairs. He was so naïve about the world, another contrast with that of the original Solo that Duo knew and idolized. The roles had reversed but they still had one thing in common like they had before.

Unfortunately, that thing happened to be the fact they were both trained killers now instead of orphaned streetrats.

"No, no they haven't," Duo answered the previously asked questioned. "From what I've learned, if you're trying to hide something, you have to treat everyone as a potential enemy. Allies can become your enemies at any time, the people you try to protect can stab you in the back, and your enemies can be your best friends. It sucks but that's how things tend to work with me."

"By that logic, you are either worried I am…I'm an ally who will betray you or who will stab you in the back," "Solo" commented.

"Or we're enemies who have become best friends," Duo added grimly. "I'll be honest with you right now, I don't know what we are right now but I'm guessing we'll be finding out in due time, right?"

Their surroundings were changing throughout the banter, from the prim, clean streets with polished buildings to the ill-cared roads of squalor and crumbling structures that were supposed to house homes and shops. Almost like night and day and it was all in Sanc.

Eventually, Duo pulled over, knowing that going any further would have to be done on foot. The car would have to be ditched namely because he didn't expect it to still be here in one piece if they came back to it. The roads beyond this point were in such disrepair that they couldn't be call streets anymore. Potholes littered every inch of it and the cracks were so large that it compromised safe passage. An off-road vehicle would have better luck than the luxury car he had jacked.

Turning off the engine, Duo gave both himself and "Solo" a look over. They had changed outfits before leaving that town a few days ago, also stealing them. He mourned the fact that they had to go into a supercenter for them. Such a big place, so many cameras, and he couldn't be sure if he had managed to shut the system off before they went in.

A risk but they had needed different clothes as the special ops uniform he had and the escaped mental patient look "Solo" was going for would have attracted too much attention.

Now he worried if they were too clean looking. Well, nothing for it. Just grab your backpack Duo and hope no one discovered the military-grade hardware you were carrying in it.

"Follow my lead, 'kay?" he said to the blond. "Slump your shoulders, look depressed, and most of all, walk like you own the place. Anything else and we'll attract the wrong attention."

"Are we not—"

"Say 'aren't we' instead. Stop trying to be so proper!"

"Are…aren't we already attracting attention?"

"We are but it's more directed towards the car. Don't worry about it, it's going to be our distraction for now. Hopefully the guy we borrowed it from won't mind it being picked apart."

"Picked apart for what?"

"Not our problem anymore, just get ready to get out and not look back."

"I have been…I've? I've been trained? Trained to be ready for any situation presented to me."

"No amount of training can ever prepare you for this. It's time, let's bolt."

The car door was opening and Duo knew that the point of no return had been reached. He kept the keys on him, locking the vehicle though he knew it wouldn't do any good. Still, give the impression you were going to come back and you were ignored in the place of a better prize.

Cross the street and head this way…okay, they were well on their way. Duo could feel many pairs of eyes watching him as he strolled down the unkempt sidewalk, kicking a couple of discarded cans that got in his way.

He kept his eyes looking straight ahead but he subtly searched for anything that might pose a threat, like say a street gang. He paid attention to the sounds of footsteps, making sure that only his set and those of "Solo" were the only ones in close proximity. Each step taken was like a gong being smashed, each slam loud and overpowering in this environment. It made it harder to keep track of where others might be.

Duo took a sudden left, entering a small, trash-filled alley that stank to high heaven with rotting produce and soppy cardboard. Through there, they entered the labyrinth of back roads and alleyways that most people didn't know about. If you thought things were bad on main street…yeah…

This also happened to be the most dangerous part of the quest, intended to be used in case there was any pursuit behind him. Pursuers would be bogged down and decimated by the elements here and not all of them were the kind that fell from the sky.

The people that lurked around here were dirtier than those out front, if that was even possible. They were also more desperate…thus more dangerous and willing to do things that no one would consider under normal circumstances.

But that was poverty. It could make you do things you never thought you could do.

To think, all some of these people wanted was just a slice of bread. That's it. Nothing but just a little something to feed their stomachs. Peace offered a lot of things but the one thing people thought it could offer, security from desolation, it couldn't.

If anything, peace stabilized desolation and poverty, ingrained it into the status quo and nobody wanted to change the status quo.

But that didn't earn anybody any of his sympathy. Your financial state didn't make you any less of a predator; it just changed your appearance to the world.

And there were predators here, watching them, sizing them up.

This was the part he was dreading most. He could rely on his ability to blend in but how would "Solo" be seen? The guy was tall, broad in all the masculine places, and definitely didn't belong due to how clean shaven he looked.

Around here, the cleaner you were, the more likely you had something on you, something valuable. Something green or at least something worth a lot of green.

"Keep your eyes peeled," he muttered to the blond. "We are in the lions' den and they are hungry."

He didn't expect a response and didn't get one. For some reason, he had a sense of déjà vu thought it wasn't exact. For a second, he felt a decade and a half younger and it had been someone else who had spoken.

He shook the feeling off, not wanting to let his mind get clouded at the moment. He had to be alert, not let any distractions sidetrack him. He needed to recall the path he needed to take to reach the locker but anything else needed to be pushed aside so that he could still watch for hostile activity.

He could see a lot of potential hostile activity and that made him more anxious. He passed a ratty-looking kid who looked harmless but was really a scout for others but then up ahead there was a grungy-looking homeless man who glared at him. Who presented the most danger: the kid or the homeless man?

Depended on who the kid was scouting for, a street gang of young men or a group of pickpocket street urchins. There, the kid was skimping off. Was being a bit obvious about it, though. He could remember the days where he played scout but he recalled he was more subtle about it, having another kid out of sight to whom he sent instructions to alert the other kids. The target would be none the wiser…

"Mind your pockets," he whispered. "Keep an eye out."

He led them through a twisting path, backtracking through a few alleyways, confusing their path. This had been done on purpose when he first invented this trail, not wanting to make it easy for anyone who might be following. Either the obstacles along the way would frustrate them enough to stop or force them to come after him preemptively.

No one was to find out about the locker; it was his trump card, to be used only in an emergency and it wouldn't do to have anyone find it first and ransack it before he could use it.

A couple minutes of what seemed to be aimless wandering led them back to the main road only further in the slums. By this point, the eyes weren't as interested in them anymore as they had been judged not to be a danger. Or at least, not a serious danger.

Still, best not to let his guard down; they weren't out of the jungle yet.

With "Solo" following him loyally, he ducked into a subway entrance, rapidly descending the stairs. A century ago, the place indeed had trains running through it but nowadays, the trains were stopped. The entire subway system was inoperable, a decision made decades before Relena's father, King Peacecraft, took the reins of his kingdom.

They had wanted their kingdom to become more like a fairy tale city, covered in a veneer of European architecture with no sign of modern day technology, outside of cars and the airstrip just outside the city. The subway was deemed too ugly, too much of an outside element and not financially sound to keep up. The trains had been shut down, but the station was still in use.

It was an informal shelter where those that had no place to go stayed if only for the night before looking elsewhere. Duo had researched the place only out of interest, wondering how such a place could exist in Sanc of all places. It was here he had discovered a set of lockers that had been once used for locals to hold their things when taking the subway.

Now it was used by the people down here who jealously guarded them. What they had there, Duo did not know. All he did was use that to his advantage. Periodically, when possible, he would check to make sure everything was still there and was usually surprised that yes indeed no one had taken anything.

It was still a gamble they were taking. More time had elapsed than he usually allowed for a checkup but if the pattern was repeating itself, his stuff should still be here.

It was quick and there they were, the lockers cornered off and watch by what looked like drunk/sleeping men. Duo knew better, they were wide awake and watching them, a shotgun or two between them. Anybody who wasn't supposed to go beyond a certain point would be shot.

Casually, he pulled his braid out from underneath the jacket he was wearing before turning to "Solo" and telling him to stay right here and watch for any trouble. He'd take it from here.

Getting a nod from the blond who looked oddly tensed and so out of his element, Duo turned back and entered the locker area. There was no boom or a cocking sound so he knew he was in the clear. Tucking his braid back into hiding, he headed to a section that was not easily visible and crouched in front of a locker.

The lock was electronic but the code Duo knew by heart. He had set it up after making a deal with the locals. The only reason he was permitted this far.

A second later, the locker door was open yet there was nothing inside. As was to be expected but Duo had put in a false back a while ago. Reach in, find the indention and voila. There, tucked away were his emergency stores.

Taking out a small box, he opened it and quickly flipped through the various IDs he had. So which one should he use this time? He wasn't going to take the fake one he made for his failed attempt to infiltrate the Lunar Base as a potential OZ recruit. That one had been an embarrassment to even the fakest of fake IDs.

Charles Montana? No. Richard Yates? Meh. Sonny Bono? How'd that get in there? Discard. Eric Booker? Hmm…maybe for a rainy day. Dwayne Johnston? So hot that he was cooking with it. Next. Malcolm Hughes?

Yeah…he'd go with ol' Malcolm Hughes this time. Now for the cash, the credit cards, checkbook, and all that. He'd pick up another identity, for "Solo" in the off chance that they needed it. Had to get a picture and all that to make it more real and official.

He pocketed the items belonging to the Malcolm Hughes identity and stashed the rest in his backpack. He also grabbed a few stacks of bills, mostly twenties and a few hundreds for the larger purchases.

He fixed the false back then shut the locker, doing his best not to make a lot of noise. No sense telling everybody where he was and what he was doing. Returning to "Solo" without making it look like he was in a hurry, he guided the blond back with him, giving a subtle nod to the homeless men whose eyes had not left either him or "Solo" once.

Back out of the station, a few quick looks around to see if there was anyone waiting for them. Nothing that he could tell though he could see from the corner of his eye that "Solo" was tensing up again. Probably just him nervous and wanting to get out of this place as quickly as possible. As much as Duo felt at home here, he couldn't have agreed more.

Not wanting to take the back alleys as he had a feeling about them, he decided to have them stick to the main street for now as they tried to get out of the slums as soon as possible. They'd pass by the car on their way out and Duo made a note to look at it, see if his prediction of it being stripped would come true.

It was a slight distraction but a distraction nonetheless that made him react a second too late as a shotgun came into view, its barrel pointed straight at him. Fortunately, "Solo" hadn't been distracted and his hand had snatched the end of the shotgun barrel. Duo watched with no little awe as "Solo's" grip bent the gun barrel upwards, rendering the shotgun useless.

"Yo man! Let go da gun!" a voice snarled from behind them as Duo became aware of the gun that was aimed at the back of "Solo's" head.

Damn it, why hadn't he paid more attention? He let his thoughts wander for just a second and now they were being surrounded by gang members who were armed. Only now did he notice how the streets were suddenly empty of people.

Shit.

"Do as he says," Duo ordered the blond, looking straight ahead though his eyes darted from side to side, trying to find all the immediate threats around them. He could see two to his left, another to his right, the guy in front of them who was stunned by his ruined gun, and then there were the two to three he could sense behind them.

It was probably two; he could hear their breathing and there wasn't enough noise for there to just be more than two people.

"Solo" released the shotgun barrel, lowering his hand as he too studied the situation they now found themselves in.

"Raise yer hands!" the gang member behind "Solo" demanded. "Raise 'um!"

"Hey, hey, no need to be hasty here," Duo said out loud, hoping to himself that his voice at least sounded soothing. "We're all cool, right?"

"Shut up!" the gang member snapped.

"Solo, raise'em," Duo told the blond, ignoring the irate man. "Like me, 'kay?"

"We should 'ust shoot 'em!" one of the gang members said, one of the ones to his left. "Easier ta steal from a dead body than a livin' one."

"There doesn't need to be any killing here," Duo said loudly, not liking where this was going. "What is it you guys want? Tell us what it is and we'll try to accommodate you."

"Shut up," the gang member ordered again. "Just give da wallets. Hand 'em over!"

"It's in my pocket, can I trust you not to shoot me while I pull it out?" Duo asked.

"Do it."

Slowly, he lowered his right hand, making sure the more threating of the gangsters could see it as he reached into his back pocket and pulled out his recently retrieve wallet with fake ID and everything. Someone roughly snatched it from him but he made no issue about it. Now was the time to cooperate; once the guns were down…

"An' da pack!" the gang member ordered. "Both them! Da backpacks!"

"You don't want what's in these things," Duo stated, cursing himself for his own self-inflicted handicap of not lying. Then again, even if he had lied, they'd still take the pack—

"Hey, you almost tore my arm off!" he complained as the gang member to his right practically tore the backpack off his back.

"C'mon, let's get!" the lead gang member ordered.

"We should still shoot 'um!" a gang member protested.

"Yea, he fucked my gun up!" the one with the shotgun added.

"Forget them, let's go!" the lead gang member ordered.

Duo could hear the footsteps of the others following after their leader, all except for the guy in front of them who was sending "Solo" a death glare.

"Fuckin' asshole," the gang member growled as he raised his damaged shotgun and rammed the butt end of the weapon into "Solo's" face.

Let it be mentioned that the gang member wasn't the only one surprised when "Solo" wasn't fazed by the blow. Almost instantaneous, "Solo" reacted, his large hand grabbing the gang member by his upper right arm. With a twist and a pull, the blond tore the gang member's arm right off of his body.

"Holy…" Duo heard one of the other gang members utter in shock while their comrade screamed in terror and agony.

If that was a sign of distraction Duo heard, he was more than ready to take advantage of it. These guys weren't used to getting resistance from their victims so they hadn't patted either of them down. If they had, they would have found the pistol Duo had on him and could have totally unarmed him.

Lucky him, eh?

He spun around on his heel, pulling out the pistol and firing at the gang members. Stunned by seeing one of their own literally disarmed, they were unprepared for him. He dropped two immediately with one shot each, had to fire a couple into the third, but by that time the remaining two had caught on that they were under fire.

There was still the gang leader who was ducking, trying to find cover while starting to shoot back and one other gang member who had taken off in the other direction. He wasn't shooting but then again didn't have a gun on him. He'd be ignored for now…unless reinforcements were waiting in the wings. Crap

Which one to go for, the leader or the escaping gangster?

He paused as he saw the ruined shotgun hurtle through the air and strike the gang leader with a striking crunch, giving Duo the time he needed to shoot him down. The next thing he knew, he heard someone cry out and a second later someone landed on the asphalt right next to him.

Reflexively, he kicked his foot out and struck the person in the head, proceeding to ignore whoever it was in favor of reaching the fallen gang leader and kicking his gun away before he could raise it up to shoot at him.

As the gun went scattering away, Duo stomped his foot down on the gang leader's hand and didn't show any mercy as he grounded his heel into the limb. Noticing that the gang leader was in possession of his backpack, he retrieved it, sliding his arms back through the straps.

"You picked the wrong guys to try to rob, didn't ya?" he asked rhetorically to the wounded man. He purposefully stomped on the man's stomach, further aggravating his bullet wounds, all the while pretending to look innocent as he made his way over to the other gang members.

He couldn't help but wince at the throb in his shoulder, the gunshot wound still making a pain of itself. He might need to take another pain killer soon; the sudden activity of fighting their would-be muggers had been too much of a strain.

Recovering his wallet, he turned his attention back towards "Solo" who was keeping an eye on the gang member that had tried to run away earlier. He was getting the idea that "Solo" had chased after the gang member and literally thrown him back towards the others.

Eying the armless gang member, he said, "Let me guess, you don't know your own strength?"

"No," "Solo" stated, not getting the old phrase.

"That's another thing we're going to have to work on, your sense of humor," Duo sighed. "Come on, let's get out of here. Don't have to worry 'bout cops but the natives will start getting restless here in a bit."

"You seem unconcerned," "Solo" noted. "Should you not—"

"Shouldn't, get with the program already!" Duo complained, stress taking its toll on his tolerance.

"_Will __you __stop __interrupting __me __Kid?_" "Solo" snapped, his bland façade cracking as anger briefly flared in his eyes.

Duo felt his jaw slacken as he stared at the blond, not really comprehending what he had just heard. Thankfully, his sharpened mind managed to jumpstart his thinking processes so that he able to demand, "What did you just say?"

"I…" "Solo" trailed off, a small frown replacing the enraged expression. "I…that is strange. I do not recall. I know I said something but I…"

"Stop!" Duo interrupted, holding a hand up. "Just…don't say anything. Now, did you just call me Kid?"

"Solo" looked to be thinking about it, something that irritated Duo. This guy couldn't be serious; he was actually thinking about something he had just said a couple seconds ago? Give him a break.

"I do not…don't know," "Solo" finally said. "If you said I did…"

"I'm asking about something you said," Duo cut in. "You said it, you know you said it, but here you are saying you don't remember saying it. Doesn't that strike you as odd? I mean, it's not like people forget what they just said—"

"_You __callin__' __me __a __liar?_" "Solo" flared up at him before instantly returning to his usual computer-like mien and expressing confusion, wondering why he had just spoken again.

Duo couldn't bring himself to say anything because for a moment, he had felt like he had heard Solo, his Solo, once again. "Solo's" voice had twisted, almost become accented for those five little words. And now here the blond was again, the same confused look from before this second outburst.

"Let's just get out of here," Duo said at last. "I think we might want to be in a…safer location, yeah?"

As if not trusting his voice, the blond nodded. Pocketing his gun, Duo took the blond by the arm and began a quick pace. The sooner they got out of here, the better.

Nothing, though, stopped him from dwelling on the words that had come out of "Solo's" mouth or the memories of a much younger Solo you was chastising a much younger Duo, teaching him that the worst thing you could ever do was lie.

Things were starting to get fucked up around here.

* * *

><p>Quatre disliked the feeling of returning empty-handed. There was nothing in this world that felt as morale lowering to him than that. Plus there was that inevitable disappointment from your peers that always followed.<p>

With Une, the discomfort would be doubled because one, she had absolute faith in their abilities no matter how often they may mess up and two, she trusted them to do their duty like a war buddy trusted the person next to them to keep him alive. She trusted that they would have found their errant colleague by now and were returning with him but that couldn't be further from the truth.

They hadn't found Duo and his braided friend's trail had grown so cold. They had checked the surrounding area at every hospital in a one hundred mile radius for any sign of the missing ex-pilot or at least a report of missing medical supplies.

Nothing. It was like he had vanished into thin air along with the second flashdrive that Trowa had used. There were only two plausible reasons for this, Quatre had concluded. Either Duo had been severely wounded and/or captured during that disaster of a mission or he was purposely hiding from them for some unknown reason.

Quatre was leaning more towards the first option because Duo had yet to pull any sort of disappearing stun on any assignment given to him. Why start now? It didn't make sense. That and he didn't want to consider the implications of the second options, especially since he wanted to keep full faith in the pilot who had been distancing himself from the rest of them over the years.

But even he, the one person who struggled to make sure that the five ex-Gundam pilots stayed connected with one another, had his frustrations with Duo. So many invitations to just spend time together spurned, attempts to have simple conversations denied, requests for simple friendship ignored…

He did not want to see the camaraderie that had been established between the five of them torn apart. However, he had no idea as to why Duo was pulling away like he was. The others had pulled away before but they did try to exclude the others, the sole exception being Wufei when he joined the Barton Foundation's attempted coup de tat. If anything, Duo had once been ardent on keeping the ties between the five of them strong. What happened to cause such a reversal?

Regardless of his personal feelings, Quatre knew he had to entertain all possibilities. Ignoring one now just because the ramifications were not favorable could come back to haunt them later. Still, what was going on?

Looking away from her computer as the three Preventer agents entered, Une focused her attention solely on them, waiting for their report.

Quatre straightened up, squared his shoulders, but did not speak. Usually, he would act as the spokesman for them but he was letting Wufei handle it this time. Strangely, Wufei was always better at relaying bad news than he was.

"We were unable to locate Agent Nightmare or find anything that might suggest his whereabouts," Wufei stated, starting the debriefing.

Une frowned at that. "I was not expecting to hear that come from you," she said honestly. "What seems to be the problem agents? Why were you not able to find one of our own?"

Wufei's jaw tensed, a sign that Quatre knew as one that meant the Chinese agent was frustrated. "We followed your suggestion to investigate the reports of explosions and found—"

"I know what you found," Une interrupted. "I have that report right here," she emphasized by placing a hand on small stack of papers. "A downed helicopter and several bodies of unidentified men with illegal contraband."

"Contraband?" Quatre found himself asking. From what he had seen, there was no contraband at the scene.

"The guns, Agent Mirage," Une answered him. "They were using issues that have been reserved only for Preventer use and are illegal for anyone else to possess. Thus it is considered contraband."

"We found signs that Agent Nightmare may have been injured," Wufei interjected. "We contacted and visited as many medical centers and hospitals that we could, searching for any patients that resembled Agent Nightmare or reports of stolen supplies. As of now, we have not found anything."

"I see," Une murmured as she looked thoughtful. "Fine work but our agent is still missing."

"We canvased nearby villages and towns, looking for anyone who may have seen someone resembling Agent Nightmare," Wufei added. "No one affirmed in the positive that they saw anyone matching our description."

"We have been entertaining the possibility that Agent Nightmare was captured," Quatre put in. "Injured as he was, he would not have been able to get too far. Reinforcements may have caught up with him."

"That would be unfortunate," Une commented. "It is a shame that you destroyed portions of that base. As of now, whoever was using it has vacated, taking as much equipment with them as possible. They too have disappeared and our only leads have come from the flashdrive that you sent."

"What have you been able to learn about the files?" Trowa asked, speaking for the first time. Quatre knew he was interested in what data he had retrieved but also knew that Trowa would drop it if told that it needed to remain confidential.

Une looked at Trowa, contemplating whether she should tell them anything. That made Quatre anxious because they had come across something big and she was debating whether or not she trusted them. Both of those had negative implications.

Finally, Une said, "I am trusting you with this information. This goes no further than this office, understood?"

Apparently it was the former and she still trusted them to some degree. Three nods answered her and they awaited what she was about to tell them.

"We are still going through the data you managed to retrieved," Une told them confidentially. "We've been having a heyday with the financial records. Whatever was occurring in that base, it has been taking place for quite some time, back when the Alliance was still in power. It is believed so far that someone wanted to keep track of their funds, making sure their expenditures did not exceed the amount of capital they had. What we haven't figured out is who was authorizing the payments though we have seen some infusions of capital made in the past few months.

"Something else of interest that has been discovered disturbs me. It involves the infusion of a human body with the drug Lyrithine. As you know, that substance is illegal and can only be authorized in critical emergencies. Currently I have agents searching for any kinds of illegal purchases but nothing has come up yet."

Quatre had stilled at the word "Lyrithine," his hands balling into fists.

Why was Lyrithine involved? It was substance that acted an accelerated steroid and could increase a person's physical strength with multiple doses. However, it was a highly addictive substance that had severe withdrawal symptoms. Once you were addicted to it, you have to keep taking the drug for the rest of your life as by that point, withdrawal was lethal.

Why was Lyrithine involved in a weapon development lab? Something was not right about this.

"There is also mentions of a machine that has been found," Une continued. "Thus far, all we know is that its purpose is removal. Removal of what has yet to be identified. We have identified some names, though, thanks to the format of some of the files. Sebastian Jaczynski and Romero Utterbeck, both of whom are doctors. Doctors of what, that has not been found out yet. The tech geeks figure that if we find out who they are, we might find out who some of those researchers were that you reported about."

"Sounds reasonable," Trowa remarked. "I'm troubled about the Lyrithine, though. For what purpose would it have in weapons development?"

Wow, took the thoughts right out of his mind. Quatre decided not to speak up, also wanting to know some answers.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Une admitted. "It's just another mystery that has been piling out of this."

"So much for a simple in-and-out mission," Trowa said.

"We're still finding out more from that flashdrive but at this point, I believe it is imperative to locate Agent Nightmare and retrieve the flashdrive that is in his possession," Une concluded. "It should be able to clarify and answer some questions that have cropped up."

"So we use the information you have given to us as incentive to find our missing agent?" Trowa stated.

"If that is how you see it, go ahead," Une replied. "Just one more thing before you go. Does the name Jessica Carrey mean anything?"

"It does," Quatre answered. "She's a reporter who has been lurking about headquarters and has a nasty habit of hiding in the parking garage. Security has been called on her many times. Why do you ask?"

"Just curious," Une shrugged. "I've heard that name a few times but haven't learned of any agent who uses it. It sounded like a new up and comer but I was mistaken."

"If that is all," Wufei said, asking if there was anything else they needed to go over.

"Not at this time. However, I still want you to search for Agent Nightmare. The sooner you do, the sooner we can find out just what is going on," Une said, dismissing them.

They took the sign and Quatre trailed behind, taking responsibility of shutting the door behind them. That had gone better than he had thought. He had been sure she was going to tear them a new one. It seemed like she was more interested in the flashdrive they had managed to recover.

Still, they would not have many more saving graces. They had to find Duo as soon as they could.

Now, Quatre wondered, where would Duo be?


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Note: What can I say about this chapter other than it is going to screw everything you thought you knew and turn it over on its head. Enjoy.

Warning: language

Chapter 7

Of all the services Duo liked most in this modern, futuristic world, it was mass transit.

Being able to get on a large vehicle with dozens of other faceless riders without anyone looking at you twice and not caring where your place in the world was was the closest Duo had ever come to his private fantasy of what utopia was. Of course, the drawback was the small fee you had to pay in order to use the transit system but it was always so worth it.

That and the fact you paid in untraceable cash. Even with the small camera at the front, recording every person's movement, the odds were incredibly small that anyone would check them to search for him. On his days off, he'd ride the bus all day, just letting life pass him by. Occasionally, a call from work would come up, someone demanding to know where the hell he was, but those interruptions were few and in-between.

On this fine day, it was mass transit that carried both him and his blond shadow towards their latest destination.

They needed unlimited access to a computer and it had to be in a place where no one would question what they were doing there. Luckily, such a place did exist and was open to anybody so long as you didn't cause any property damage or make too much noise.

That place was the Sanc Public Library.

With their youthful appearances, Duo knew they would be dismissed as a pair of college students working on a class assignment. That was precisely the guise he was aiming for as the data in the flashdrive was sure to attract some kind of attention unless they cast the perfect illusion.

College kids these days used flashdrives, right? No one would think anything of a couple college kids using a library computer to look at stuff on one, right?

Misgivings aside, as the large, white building with the Greek-styled columns came into view, Duo nudged "Solo's" side to get his attention and a minute later, they were off.

"Remember, look like the weight of the world is on your shoulders and pissed that your computer at home is busted," Duo told the blond as he strolled towards the library entrance. "You don't want to be here but have no choice."

"Af—" "Solo" began but was interrupted.

"If you're about to say affirmative, don't," he said warningly as he reached the steps. "Say 'yeah, yeah' like you've been told this a million times and don't want to hear it again."

"Yeah, yeah," "Solo" said convincingly.

"Wow, you really sound believable," Duo said, looking back at the blond with wide eyes.

"I'm learning," "Solo" stated.

"About freakin' time," Duo muttered. "Now don't say anything to the front desk, walk quickly by like you know where you're going."

"But I do not…don't know where I am going," "Solo" said truthfully.

"Just follow me," Duo instructed as he grabbed hold of the large door handle. "Some people have never set foot here before and they won't think twice about it. 'Sides, I have an idea of where we need to go."

The air conditioning was on full blast as they entered, Duo not giving a second look to the help who returned the disrespect by not acknowledging also. Through a pair of held-opened doors, door jams wedged at their bottoms, the pair entered into the large, expansive room that held rows upon rows of shelves.

Duo led them down one aisle, took a turn then another one, heading for a large case of stairs to head up to the second floor of this enormous building. He knew the computers were held somewhere near the back, in a place that wouldn't get in the way of people browsing through overused books.

It took a few minutes of looking, longer than Duo had anticipated, before they found what they were looking for. Dumping his backpack at one of the computers, he put the flashdrive into "Solo's" larger hand and looked him dead in his green eyes.

"I'm trusting you're not going to run with this thing," he said. "Know how to use it?"

"I do," "Solo" said with a slight inflection of irritation. Ah, progress at last.

"Good, I'll be right back," he said. "Got to grab a couple things."

With that, he ventured back towards the simple labyrinth of bookshelves. He glanced around, searching for a few sections in particular, even had to go back downstairs for a bit. When he returned, he had three large books under his arm, props if you will.

Just another element to add to the ruse he was creating.

Taking a seat in front of the computer that "Solo" had connected the flashdrive to, he handed one of the books to "Solo," telling him to open it up to a random page and leave it like that. He kept the other two books stacked on one another before he cracked his knuckles and got to work on looking through the files on the flashdrive.

"Ready or not," he said to himself and partly to "Solo." With as many files as he had seen last time, he was not looking forward this. There was going to be a lot of reading and a lot of sitting still and the library had rules allowing no drinks to be anywhere in the building.

Yeah, as he had mentioned before, he was not looking forward to this.

Opening up the flashdrive menu, he once again boggled at how much Trowa had managed to put on this thing and…hey, the computer was showing how big these files were. Many were a few hundred kilobytes but there were a few in the megabyte size. In fact, the largest was 300 megabytes, nearly a third of the space on the flashdrive.

Something that had to be big, excuse the obvious.

"You are…aren't starting where you left off?" "Solo" asked, frowning slightly.

"Just want to find the important stuff and I don't care to go through every single thing," Duo replied as he opened up the large file. "Deal with it."

The first, and most obvious, thing Duo saw were the words PROJECT GOLIATH in bolded font. The world's greatest cover sheet, he supposed. Scrolling down, he reached where the text actually began.

Okay, let's see…great, it was some sort of diatribe, explaining how humans had been fighting since the dawn of time, yadda, yadda. With the advent of Mobile Suits, physical abilities weren't as demanding so long as a person can pilot them…sheesh whoever wrote this had no idea what went on in Mobile Suit pilot training. Because of the immense size, Mobile Suits would soon dominate all times of combat and warfare, not a large stretch of the imagination there.

What's this? _However, __despite __the __sophistication __of __technology __and __modern __warfare, __these __instruments __of __destruction __are __useless __without __the __human __brain. __Without __a __human __acting __as __the __machinery__'__s __brain, __a __Mobile __Suit __is __as __valuable __as __a __pile __of __scrap __heap._

"This guy has not heard of Mobile Dolls," he chuckled out loud.

"Mobile Dolls?" "Solo" asked, taking his eyes off the computer screen to glance at him.

"A Mobile Doll is a Mobile Suit that's piloted by a computer program," Duo explained. "It takes away the need to have a person pilot it. In the words of this guy, you have a walking, fighting scrap heap that moves all on its own."

"So it makes humans unnecessary?" "Solo" asked further.

"At least in Mobile Suit combat," Duo shrugged. "However, I and a few others believe that using these things will make wars longer. If nobody is dying in a war, a war will last for however long the people in charge want it. That and war will lose that cutting edge, you know, where loved ones go off to fight only to never come back. The wars will stay out of the living room where they need to be."

_Recently, there has been a movement towards pacifism. While it is noble and ideal, the practicality of relying on that way of life is unfeasible and a fool's dream. Human history has shown that no matter how much a population tries to avert war, war will always make its return and to dismiss fighting as human desire is irresponsible. War will take place anywhere it can, even in places where Mobile Suits are not able to tread. That is why there must be a new push to train our future soldiers more strenuously._

"I don't like what he's saying but the guy's got a point," Duo muttered as he read further on. "Solo" was silent, not saying a word.

Further down, the text began placing an even larger emphasis on the human condition and how malleable it was. Really, malleable was the word that was actually used there. Then it seemed to backtrack, saying even though the human body has a lot of potential, an individual only has so much willpower to push themselves further. That their emotions and attachments to others would hold them back from fully realizing their full potential.

_But what if there was a way to change that? What if there was a way to train a soldier into not having such attachments? A soldier who expresses complete loyalty but is able to think for themselves in unprecedented circumstances? To be able to adjust to the uncertainties of war but not lose sight of which "side" they are on? And to push their bodies to the maximum extent and then further no matter the situation or environment they find themselves in?_

"I'm not liking where this is going," Duo muttered again but pressed on, ignoring the sinking feeling in his gut.

The minutes ticked by and Duo found that his gut feeling had been correct. The only thing it had been wrong about was just what this person was proposing to do.

"Create artificial humans with the sole purpose of being soldiers?" Duo said as he sat back in his seat, his mind spinning. "What is this guy thinking?"

As he soon found out, though, whatever this guy was thinking, it went much deeper and got much more twisted.

The first phase of what this Project Goliath was proposing was to artificially grow a set of human clones and disperse them in various settings and locations. Many would be placed on Earth but there were a few who were stashed on the Colonies themselves. These clones would be left to their own devices, surviving however they saw fit and after a few years would be tracked down and recovered.

After that, things got a bit confusing. These clones were to be "deactivated" and put into something call a MIRS. After that, they would be terminated…and data retrieved would be installed in a new prototype clone. This new clone would have its growth accelerated while invitro, continuing through early childhood development, and straight into the adolescence developmental stage where it would begin training exercises.

Duo didn't really understand the jargon being used at that point because there were hypothesized strategies suggested to also increase the clone's physical abilities, including reflexes, cognition, and strength. It was as if this artificial human was some kind of robot that they could install program after program onto.

Scrolling down further showed a list of sources, as if whoever had written this thing was intending to publish it and didn't want plagiarism added to the list of crimes they were committing. Hell, this whole thing was a virtual laundry list of anticipated crimes!

Human experimentation, possible abandonments and kidnappings, and under present laws illegal military training. And that was only the tip of the iceberg! There was probably even more crimes in here that it would take a lawyer to ferret it all out.

"Are you stopping?" "Solo" asked. "There is more."

"Contractions, man," Duo said dully as he saw that there was truly more left to read. Though fearing to do so, he scrolled down and saw, much to the horror, progress reports.

This wasn't just a proposition; some of these things had already been done! Then that meant this whole thing was in progress and who knew how far along they were. As much as he didn't want to, he read more.

Okay, right here was a report on the very first stages, selecting "randomly chosen" donors, going through all genetic possibilities to find a "perfect" specimen. A second report confirmed that a subject had been chosen and the fertilization stage was beginning. A few more reports just stated how far along the process was, when the growth accelerant was added, blah, blah, blah…

And then there was a list. Duo didn't blink once as he read that each subject was given a codename of sorts. What he did find interesting, despite himself, was that each "subject" had a basic physical description with specific anomalies if they happened to present themselves. Comparing a few together, he saw a common theme of blond hair, pale skin, brown colored eyes, and the ever present sex of male. Beneath that was a location that each subject would be placed and left to fend for themselves.

Continuing on, he found the description of the one slated to be left in L2, tensing slightly as he recognized the name of the specific Colony it was left on. The physical description sent another chill up his spine as it listed a blond-haired, green-eyed boy. A blond-haired, green-eyed boy that was left on the same Colony that he, Duo, also grew up on.

An image of a ratty-looking blond giving him an all-knowing smirk rose unbidden in his head. A shake sent it back into the recesses of his memory but like how the scamp was in real life, it refused to remain ignored.

After the list, there was yet another progress report that basically stated that the subjects had been released and that other aspects of the project would be focused on. There was an emphasis on the MIRS, whatever that was, and ironing out possible "glitches" in the DNA strain that had been chosen as the basis of their clones. The way whoever wrote this…it was like he was talking about fixing a car engine or developing a computer program. It was like he didn't acknowledge that he was messing with a human body, specifically its genetic blueprint.

The next few reports followed along in this same vein. Then the structure of the reports changed slightly, adding on information of repossessing the clones they had set loose. Someone was being extensive as it listed the times of recovery, where they were found, cause of death, and…information retrieval? What was information retrieval?

A couple reports later, he found the report on the L2 clone. Date of Retrieval: A.C. 184, April 20. Cause of Death: plague infection. Data Recovered: knowledge of urban survival skills and teamwork skills. Subject #0014 invested self in group of street urchins, suffered from malnutrition, displayed remarkable skills of planning and role assigning. Some information deleted due to heavy emotions involving a younger street urchin with long, brown hair. Urchin death highly probable due to presence of plague; no need for termination.

No. No way. There was no…it couldn't be talking about Solo. The blond ragamuffin that he had looked to, practically worshiped…who he had derived his own name from…he couldn't be some kind of clone. No, it had to be some other kid, some other streetrat who…spent a lot of time with a "younger street urchin with long, brown hair."

He was skipping reports now, briefly scanning them until he stopped at one that he couldn't ignore.

_All subjects have been reclaimed. All viable data has been downloaded. All subjects have been permanently terminated and disposed of. Next stages are in progress._

He was starting to feel sick as he read on. _Prototypes __not __taking __to __artificial __environment. __Those __that __have __have __shown __debilitating __defects. __Discussion __of __returning __to __original __genetic __sequence __recommended._

And then on another page… _Subject __#0111 __has __shown __exemplary __progress. __Introduction __of __lyrithium __trinitride __into __incubation __chamber._

Something about lyrithium nudged at his mind but for the life of him, he couldn't figure out why. Deciding to think about it later, though he rather not think about what was in front of him, he pressed on. He ignored the look he was getting from the blond beside him, a look that might have been concern but with that flat expression he had on, it would have been hard to tell what it was considering his sensitive state of mind.

He wasn't looking at it but it just seemed to pop up in front of his eyes. The name Wallace… Wait, hadn't the person who wrote the proposal for this thing also been called Wallace? Derrick Wallace. Yeah, this was his brainchild wasn't it?

He minimized the window that held the document file and opened up an internet browser, putting in the address of a search window. Once the engine was up, he put in the name Derrick Wallace and looked for any results with that name.

Now, most people had an assumption that if you put something into a search engine, the first results are going to give you precisely what you wanted. That was utter bullshit. The first result he found was _Did __you __mean __Derrick __Walter?_ Under that were articles that didn't even have the two names next to one another. It was like the search engine didn't know this Wallace guy existed.

Recalling the format of the file where he had first seen that name, Duo changed the search, bringing up the scholar feature on the search engine then putting Wallace's name back in.

Derrick Wallace, Properties of Hydroelectric Engines: A History and Modern Interpretation of the First Power Producing Units, dated A.C. 199.

Duo had a feeling that this wasn't the person he was looking for. From what Wallace had put into his proposal, there had been no mention of technology or engineering whatsoever. Biology, however…

Nope, nothing, and the closest he got to warfare involved an article with a guy called Sebastian Jaczynski. Improving soldiers' abilities in Mobile Suit Combat… It was on a lark but it was the closest article that had the name Wallace and involved warfare.

A few minutes later, he was a bit shaken as some of the stuff in this article were a bit familiar. If anything, he was reminded of the ZERO system from what was discussed in the discussion section. A computer program that could aid a Mobile Suit pilot by suggesting various strategies that were updated every second, taking in the various circumstances of the battle? Really sounded like the basic form of ZERO.

"Why are we reading this?" "Solo" asked from beside him. "What does it have to do with the files on the flashdrive?"

"I just…wanted to look something up," Duo said slowly, also trying to rationalize the diversion he had taken. "Remember that name from the other night? Wallace? I wanted to see what he was all about, maybe find a picture of him. He's the mind behind this Project Goliath stuff and you might have seen him."

"Maybe but you seem…disturbed," "Solo" pressed him. "Is something bothering you?"

He couldn't take it. "Excuse me," he said snippily, pushing away from the computer and leaving his chair. He needed to take a quick bathroom break…

* * *

><p>It was Quatre's turn to go out for lunch and since he needed a break, he hadn't protested. Wufei and Trowa were still searching for any reports made in the last couple of days, even hours, for any sign of Duo.<p>

They had been staying in the nearby vicinity of where the base had been located and had been widening their net to now include a one hundred mile radius. Thus far, they hadn't found anything and as it drifted into afternoon and stomachs began protesting, Quatre had taken the assignment without complain.

So here he was, in the parking garage heading for his car. It had been parked for what, three, four days? Well, it wasn't the longest but it was getting there.

Something caught his eye and he backed up a bit. There, he could see the huddled mass just behind a car. Really, this was going to have to stop already.

He changed direction, making a beeline for the stalking reporter that had once again snuck into the Preventers' parking garage. He considered whether getting a restraining order or calling up her boss to have him set her loose on something else. He did have some clout left; he could get this woman fired if he needed to.

Such thoughts had not been in his head before but the stress of this last assignment had really taken its toll on him. He was not up for these antics today.

Approaching the car, he stopped by its trunk and leaned over it at an angle so that he was peering to the car's side where a guilty young woman crouched.

"Ms. Carrey, what a surprise," he said sarcastically.

"Hiii," the young woman squeaked, drawing out the "i."

"I'm going to give you one last warning, ma'am, stop trespassing here," he ordered, placing his thumb and finger over his creased forehead. Let it not be said that he couldn't keep his manners even under the most strenuous of times. "And before you say anything about this being public property, allow me to point out that this place is reserved for government employees and is specifically for parking transportation. Nowhere in that does it say a person can hide in it and stalk its workers."

"Hey! I am not stalking!" the reporter huffed, her cheeks puffing up in indignation.

"Then what would you call it?" he demanded, exasperated. "A stake out?"

"Of course," the reporter sniffed.

"Your news organization told you to stake out the parking garage of the Preventers?" Quatre deadpanned.

Jessica Carrey looked to a side, abashed. "Not exactly…"

"They didn't tell you to stake us out, did they," Quatre stated more than asked. "They don't even know you're here. You're here on your own time, hoping to pick up a scrap that you can use for a story, right?"

The way her face began reddening, Quatre knew he was right on the money.

"Face it, you're not going to find anything here," he told her, his tone of voice brooking no argument. "If anything, you'll find more in the front lobby than here. If you're hoping to catch a secret meeting, this is not the 1970s AD. No one holds secret meetings in a parking garage and if they do, it's in the dead of night. It's the middle of day right now. Can you do the math?"

"That's just what you want me to think!" Jessica Carrey spat at him. "You guys are trying to hide something, aren't you? The people have a right to know!"

"Of course they do," Quatre agreed, "however, it's more about what they're interested in. Right now, you're not going to find anything here they're interested in and that's because nothing interesting is going to happen here. Unless you plan on writing an article about which year model and brand they should buy, there's nothing here to report."

"Can I quote you?" she asked sarcastically. Quatre knew better; with a reporter, there was no such thing as off the record. What he had just said was practically guaranteed to end up in a scathing article about the Preventers. Well, he was not in the mood to soothe her into not doing such a thing today.

"You can do as you wish but I'm going to call your organization," he told her. "Doesn't matter if you leave now or not, I'm going to tell them what you've been up to for the past few months and we'll see just how far this is going to fly with them. Good day, Ms. Carrey."

He spun away from her and stalked off. Now not only was he more stressed but now his appetite was gone. Things were seriously not going his way today.

* * *

><p>Duo splashed water onto his face, bending over the sink and not caring that the faucet was on max. He found that he didn't care a lot about anything right now. In fact, a lot of things could go to hell for all he cared. The faucet, the bathroom, the library, the planet, everything.<p>

Was he overreacting? Yes, yes he was. Don't judge him, let's see how well you'd do if you found out something about a person who you had based most of your life on. Living for two, right. From Solo comes Duo. Yeah, that was all a mess now.

He didn't know what to believe right now. He wanted to say that what he had just read was a lie or that it was talking about someone else but he had never been one for denial. There were just too many similarities in that file and his life. What other blond-haired, green-eyed streetrat who was friends with a "younger street urchin with long, brown hair" were on that same Colony?

The odds were astronomical but when you add in the Solo lookalike who for God's sake looked so much like him only older…

Solo couldn't be a clone but that file said he was! How could a clone laugh? How could a clone steal? How could a clone care for so many others other than itself? How could a clone teach him how to run, steal, hide, cheat, fight dirty, and everything else he knew about surviving on the streets and lit up his world just by paying him a little attention? Teach him everything he knew, to never tell a lie because "lyin' is da worst fuckin' zing ya can do"? That couldn't have been some clone, it was a real fucking person, not a clone!

But it was at the same time. He couldn't reconcile it. Couldn't, wouldn't, didn't want to, whatever. His brain was telling him one thing but something else telling him another. He just didn't know which to believe. He just couldn't tell!

He felt someone standing behind him and he gave in to temptation. He whirled around and swung a fist at whoever it was, not caring if it was some innocent bystander. His fist was caught by a large hand and in the next second his world spun around until his back came into contact with some surface. A rather hard but soft all the same surface but that didn't matter much as arms wrapped around him, restraining him rather than embracing him.

His eyes met the reflection in the large mirror to his front and he saw that the lookalike, "Solo" was behind him and holding him still, using that phenomenal strength that he had used on prior occasions on him now. He struggled if only to be defiant. He wasn't going to take this, he wasn't going to accept it, he…

He crumpled in on himself, letting himself recline against the hulk behind him as his vision became slightly blurry. He blink his eyes, trying to clear them but that only made it worse it seemed. Another blink and again it got worse. It also got wetter, at least on his cheek.

"Boys don't cry," he murmured to himself, another lesson taught to him by that blond streetrat (clone! Not a clone!) from years long since gone.

He would've sworn he heard "_No, __they __don__'__t_" but he ignore that, considering it a figment of his imagination. The times when he would hear that voice was long gone. They weren't coming back. They were never going to come back. Death was kind of a permanent thing, you know?

"Why?" he rasped out. "Why did you…?"

"I am worried about you," the blond stated, again in that flat-version of his old friend's voice. "You left without warning and were displaying signs of immanent withdrawal. I felt leaving you to your solitude would be detrimental to your person and…_an__' __I __was __worried._"

Those last few words, they were in that flat range that he was still getting used to but it pissed him off. Now was not a good time to hear _that_ voice and in that tone, especially when he had only hear _that_ voice in _that_ tone once before.

"Shut up! Don't you use his voice like that!" Duo snarled, struggling in the unrelenting grip. "You don't have the right! You don't have the fucking right to use his voice like that!" His foot hit the counter, the sink faucet still spraying out its stream of water without end.

"I do not understand—"

"God fucking damn it, use the goddamn contractions!"

"…I don't understand what you…you're trying to explain. _What__'__s __wrong __with __my __voice?_ Why is it causing you distress?" "Solo" asked.

"You keep using his voice. Why do you keep using his voice?" Duo groaned, his head bowed.

"Did…did you…know one of them?" "Solo" asked.

"I…why do you care?" Duo grunted, averting his eyes away from the mirror so he wouldn't have to look at the reflection of his dead friend. "In the scope of everything that we know, what possible importance could it have?"

"I don't know," "Solo" answered with uncertainty. "I feel something in my person, something telling me to…to make sure you are well. _Ta __try __an__' __protect __ya_ _Kid_. It is…it's something that _I __haveta __do_. This thing, it's making me feel out of character and speak in some kind of dialect I cannot…can't identify. Who was this…person to you?"

It took a few moments as Duo let himself hang limply in "Solo's" restraining hold. He stared ahead, seeing but not really looking while his mind was in turmoil. Slowly, some kind of order decided to establish itself and finally, he was willing to speak.

"Solo…the Solo that I know or knew…he looked after me when I was just a streetrat starving on the streets," he began explaining, voice hoarse with suppressed emotions. He couldn't lose it now…or more than he already had. "He taught me everything I know. I looked up to him, wanted to be him, and then one day he got sick. It was horrible to watch. He just kept getting worse and worse. At the time, it didn't make much sense to me. He was always this kid that no matter what, you couldn't bring him down. If you made him mad, he beat the shit out of you. If you just a little bit hungrier, he'd complain but give up some of his share. He was larger than life and when he died, I just held him and cried. I wasn't supposed to cry but I did."

It was all coming out, things he had never intended for other's ears, swore to keep secret were just not willing to be damned up anymore. He couldn't stop and no matter how hard he tried to, he couldn't.

"For a bit, I wanted to stay with the body, let myself die no matter how long it took. I don't know how long I sat there, just holding Solo. It could have been a week, a month, or even ten minutes, I don't know. It's just that some kid who I didn't know came up to me and asked where he could find something to eat. I thought about what Solo would have done when he was still alive and I knew, he would have fed this kid. And I found something for him to eat and after that…he stuck around me. It reminded me of how I was with Solo and some time passed, I don't know how much and I noticed that I wasn't trying to die anymore.

"I…I think that's the day I started calling myself Duo, actually. I was doing the same thing as Solo but I wasn't him and I couldn't be him. He was dead and I was alive but I wanted him to be alive so I…I called myself Duo. I heard that it meant two somewhere and since I was trying to be two people, it fit. It just fit. Then one day, it wasn't as bad anymore. Maybe I was too busy trying to survive or maybe it was after I ran into that priest. I don't know but whenever I thought about him, it wasn't as…painful, I guess. Maybe it was because I had other people in my life then or maybe it was the pain that soon followed that covered it up.

"Then I saw you," Duo finished flatly. "For a second, I thought he came back, but he hasn't. He won't, ever."

"He won't come back because he can't," "Solo" concluded for him.

"But every time I hear you speak it's almost like I'm hearing him again," Duo admitted. "And I hate that."

"_What__'__s __thar __ta __hate?_" slipped out of the blond's mouth.

Duo stilled but slowly relaxed. That didn't take away how much it ticked him off, though. And he bet that the blond wouldn't remember saying that so he didn't bother to call him on it. There was just so much about this guy that didn't make sense.

Why did this all have to become so confusing anyway? He should have been back at HQ by now, writing up some bureaucratic report and getting back into how much his life sucked. Damn it, they were just checking for what reason these guys would want a cache of illegal weapons. Everything he had found out about that place said that whoever was in charge was trying to develop some new weapon and what did he learn from the information they had uncovered?

Nothing but bullshit about clones and creating some human prototype that was to be a new kind of soldier or something. What that had to do with weapon development or buying illegal arms, he didn't—

It was intuitive and it struck him like a lightning bolt. Weapon development, human experimentation, genetic sequences, soldiers, illegal arms, that fucking antique tank, a guy who looked like his dead friend but wasn't.

"You're it," he said softly, his eyes wide as he stared directly ahead into the mirror at his and the blond's reflection. The faucet continued to empty out water into the sink but by now it was nothing but white noise. "You're the weapon."

"What?" "Solo" blinked at him, not quite understanding what had prompted him to say that.

"You spent all your life in that place, right?" Duo asked rhetorically. "That's all you know and all that time they spent it training you in military combat from hand-to-hand combat to weapons handling. All those clones, they all bore the same resemblance, though why they all look so different I haven't figured that out yet, and then they tried to perfect the DNA they had. Your looks are just like theirs. You're the prototype that was mentioned. It's just too coincidental."

"How do you come to that conclusion?" "Solo" asked quietly.

"Think about it, do you remember anything before being in that base?" Duo pressed him.

"That does not mean your theory is correct."

"Use the contractions and take a look in the mirror," Duo ordered. "The primary physical characteristics are blond hair and brown eyes."

"I have green eyes," "Solo" pointed out.

"So did some of the others," Duo argued. "Not many, I'll give you that."

"They're clones; there shouldn't be any variety among them," "Solo" mentioned.

"Probably some crappy cloning process," Duo replied. "The way they were writing those reports, it's like they're purposely not trying to put the things that went wrong in them unless those things couldn't be ignored. Plus there's more time between each one. And now that I think of it, you didn't leave that flashdrive still in that computer where anyone could take it?"

"No. I removed it first," "Solo" reported. "It's currently on my person."

"Good," Duo sighed. "Had to get that one out of the way. Anyway, what was I…? Oh right, the thing."

"Your conclusion," "Solo" agreed stoically.

"Yeah, that. It fits and brings all the evidence together in a way that makes the most sense."

"It would take a lot time—" "Solo" began to argue but Duo cut him off.

"But you're not aware of how much time you were there, remember?" Duo stated. "That's right and…and you're not really comfortable with all this, are you?"

It was only now that Duo recognized that the blond looked uncomfortable and Duo couldn't believe how he had missed it. It was the first real expression of any kind of emotion on the blond's face and here he was staring at its reflection.

"Let's see what else we can find, eh?" he suggested, squirming is discomfort. "There's gotta be more, right?"

"Right," "Solo" agreed with him though he wasn't as sure as Duo was. Then again, Duo wasn't real sure himself.

"Okay, back to the grindstone, let's go," Duo said.

A nod from the blond who began to head towards the door. That's when Duo remembered one other detail that had slipped his mind.

"Hey, hey! Put me down first!"

* * *

><p>"BLT, hold the mayo, on wheat and chicken on rye, lots of dressing," Quatre announced as he set the take-out on a desk.<p>

"Appreciate it," Trowa said absentmindedly as he swiped the clear plastic bag and removed the BLT. Quatre watched in awe as the taller agent took a large bite, the crunch of the lettuce snapping out over the sound of typing. His eyes hadn't even left the computer monitor…

Seeing as how Wufei hadn't left his computer, Quatre decided to venture a guess that something had come up.

"Did you find something?" he asked.

"We didn't think much of it earlier but looking back on it, we think it's actually something," Trowa answered him but only after he had swallowed first.

"Really? What?" Quatre asked, his hopes raising slightly.

"A report of a stolen car," Trowa said. "I know, doesn't sound like a lot to go on but it's its location that's suspicious. The car was stolen from a small town that is close to the base, about twenty or thirty miles. It's a place with low crime and this is literally the second time there has been a car reported missing there."

"So? Car theft is rare there. Why's it so important?" Quatre asked, not really understanding.

"It is because cart theft is so rare there that we focused on it," Wufei spoke up, the Chinese man having left his seat to pick up his sandwich. "Also, the date that the theft was reported was a day ago. Yesterday. Someone during the night after our botched mission stole it. It's too close to the time when Maxwell disappeared. We're checking further into it if only to clear that lead."

"And you don't want to not check in on it in case it's the clue we're looking for," Quatre concluded.

"We've gotten in touch with the car's manufacturer," Trowa continued.

"To get them to activate the antitheft tracking beacon installed in all motorized vehicles," Quatre finished up once again. "I'll accept your gratitude for getting the ESUN to authorize it."

"You're the one that had that legislation proposed?" Wufei commented.

"Well, I made some suggestions to my more politically minded sisters and they took it from there," Quatre shrugged.

"All we have to do is give the manufacturer a reason why we need that beacon activated," Trowa said. "Not a tall order. With as much clout as the Preventers have, just us saying that we're working on a case in which the car theft might be related to is enough to get their okay. It's the paperwork that has to be done first and they don't want to be sued in case this is just a red herring."

"You would think the victim would approve of it if only to get the car back," Quatre said.

"Such is the world we live in," Wufei said philosophically before taking a bit into his sandwich.

"So when should we hear back?" Quatre asked as he took a seat, arms crossed.

"Any—" _ding!_ "—now."

Trowa pressed a few keys, eyes trained on the monitor. Then he let out a whistle.

"You will not believe where they say the beacon's signaling from."

"Where?" Wufei demanded.

Looking away from the computer, Trowa looked both of them dead in their eyes. "Right here in Sanc."


	8. Chapter 8

Author's Note: Shortest chapter thus far but there's not much to this chapter. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Warning: language

Chapter 8

How sure were they that it was Duo who had stolen that car? While at first it seemed logical, Quatre had to admit that car thefts were a pretty common occurrence and just because he knew Duo had an ambivalent view towards obeying the law didn't mean it was actually Duo who did it.

But one did have to wonder how a car that was stolen in an area where a covert Preventers operation was conducted ended up on the outskirts of the Sanc Kingdom. That's what made it easier to believe that Duo was involved. As it was a good possibility, it made Quatre wonder why he committed the theft in the first place.

Why hadn't he tried to contact headquarters instead and request for a pick up? If he was being chased, he could understand why he didn't do so immediately. He could then understand why he stole the car but to drive it all the way to Sanc and not stop at the nearest town or city along the way? Very fishy sounding.

Wufei was at the wheel while Trowa rode shotgun (a term that Quatre had picked up, strangely enough, from Duo) while he sat in the back. Trowa was busy giving Wufei directions to where the car's beacon reported its location to be so that left Quatre with a little time on his hands to ponder and observe their changing scenery.

As the seconds ticked by, Quatre found himself growing more and more uncomfortable. He couldn't explain why; probably had something to do with his intense sensitivity. Normally he could block it out but every once in a while, he would be struck with some intense emotions that would force him to stop what he was doing to try and endure the onslaught he was experiencing.

Some called it a strange form of sixth sense, an empathetic receptor that could receive others' emotions. Quatre didn't know what to call it but calling it empathy or a sixth sense or whatever terminology people cared to use was a bit farfetched, even to him. Yes, there were times when there could be no other explanation other than some supernatural one but claiming whatever it was people claimed it to be… Yeah, there were some people out there with overactive imaginations.

The car shook slightly, an odd thing to happen but Quatre dismissed it. Not all roads could be even, even in a place like Sanc. Wear and tear and the occasional paving error tended to do that.

Looking out of the car window, he could feel his face slowly creasing into a frown though he could not explain why. There was just…something about the buildings, he supposed. They didn't seem as pristine as the rest of the city and—what the! Was that graffiti? Sanc had a very strict anti-graffiti policy, that is there would be no graffiti period. What was such defamation doing here of all places?

"Are you sure we're in the right place?" he heard Wufei asked out loud to Trowa, unknowingly echoing Quatre sentiments.

"According to the address and GPS, we are," Trowa confirmed though Quatre thought he sensed some disbelief in the other's voice.

"Are we even still in the same city?" Wufei demanded. "This does not look like Sanc."

Quatre couldn't have agreed more with that statement.

"No, we still are in the city limits of Sanc," Trowa stated. "Make a turn up here, right. We should be reaching the address."

"I don't like this," Quatre muttered, speaking just to speak. "This doesn't feel right."

"Take the safeties off your sidearms," Wufei recommended. "We are entering possibly unknown territory. If we are in any danger, do not hesitate to draw your weapons."

"How can this be happening," Quatre muttered. "We're supposed to be in a time of peace!"

"Peace or not, areas like this do exist," Trowa commented. "I believe we're entering the slums of Sanc. Never thought I'd ever say that."

"Poverty?" Quatre nearly gasped. "In Sanc?"

"It is unfortunate that contrary to any constitution or philosophical institution that not all men are created equal," Wufei said. "Some men have prestige and privilege through the dumb luck or being born into it while others are born into squalor."

"It shouldn't have to be that way," Quatre said softly as his hackles began to rise.

A turn and less than a minute later, they were coming upon a car that was parked ahead of them. There was something about the car but Quatre couldn't figure out just what was curious about it.

"Chrome four-door, has the manufacturer's logo on the trunk, license plate is that of the stolen vehicles," Trowa listed off. "I believe we've found out quarry."

"Let's be quick about this," Wufei said as he unbuckled his seatbelt. "I don't like the looks of our environment."

There was something in the air, Quatre could smell it as he got out of their car. It didn't smell like the rest of Sanc, again leading him to ask how such a place could exist in Sanc of all places. He knew that Relena was busy as the Vice Foreign Minister but wasn't she still responsible for this city as well? He'd have to ask her about this the next opportunity he had.

As the three drew closer to the car, Quatre began picking up on the details that his mind hadn't been able to comprehend earlier and it soon dawned on him why he was more than curious about this car.

It had the look of being ransacked, the tires all gone with cinder blocks holding the car up off the ground. From an open door, he could see the parts of the interior were missing, the most obvious being the driver and front passenger seats. Closer inspection showed that the car radio and other console devises had been removed as well.

Quatre was beginning to doubt that Duo had taken this car after all. He knew that Duo wouldn't do this to any vehicle he had hotwired. Wreck it, crash it, leave it a burning pile of scrap metal, that was more Duo's style. He could see the doubt in his two comrades. Both Wufei and Trowa looked as if they were starting to doubt Duo had anything to do with this.

"A dead end?" Wufei asked incredulously. "We spent this time tracking a car that was stolen for its parts? By all my ancestors…"

"Wait," Trowa said sharply from the other side of the car. "The floormats."

Quatre frowned but looked at what had captured Trowa's attention. On the driver's side, he looked down at the floormat and nearly sucked in air. Right there was a footprint, a very dirtied footprint that had a familiar design pattern. Could it be Duo's bootprint?

"I think we may have a lead," Trowa said as he held up the floormat from the passenger side, one that had another set of dirtied footprints though Quatre couldn't identify anything from them. Was it someone who was wearing slippers?

Wait, why were there two separate sets of dirtied footprints in this car? Was Duo with someone else? He voiced as much to the other two who were almost as dumbstruck as him.

"So the mystery deepens," Wufei commented. "We'll ponder this later; take what looks important and call up for someone to tow this. Make sure they bring some spare tires."

* * *

><p>It was dark out by the time they left the library but by then the pair of traveling companions looked as exhausted as they felt.<p>

Yeah, reading can take a lot out of you, especially if the content is dry or takes you on an emotional rollar coaster that you felt drained by the end of it. In this case, it was a little of both.

From where they had left after Duo had made his unplanned bathroom break, it was found that the prototype, the first successful one at least, had taken to the treatments and had quickly grown through the early childhood development phases. By the time the prototype, as it was commonly referred to throughout the documentation, was released from its tube, it was entering adolesence and that was when the physical therapies and combat training began. No time was given to allow it to adjust to its surroundings or just being able to walk on its own.

Sorry, he. After reading endless pages, you began to start thinking of how the author views things instead of how you see them. Besides, if Duo was right with his theory, he was walking alongside that "prototype" who was silent as he usually was, just staring straight ahead and giving no signs that he was bothered.

Duo had a feeling that "Solo" was bothered. He really had this feeling that "Solo" believed that he was one hundred percent human, that he wasn't some being grown in an oversized tube for the express purpose of reinventing the concept of what a soldier was. But Duo knew that he would react that same way if he was in "Solo's" shoes.

He knew, as did the layman, about test tube babies, and how that was a means used up in the Colonies, particularly among the wealthy. He also knew how, once learning about their origins, many test tube babies would resent their parents, believing themselves to be a product of science more than that of the union between two people.

He had heard the stories about how Quatre acted when he was younger. The things you could learn from forty burly men out in the middle of a desert…

Duo didn't really understand what was the thing about being born in a test tube. Why was it so important that your parents have sex to have you instead of going to a lab? Was it to keep an illusion that you were the product of two people who were deeply in love? Hell, Duo knew a lot of people who weren't born from test tubes whose parents hated each other, where they weren't born from a union of love.

"You just don't understand," is what he would be told, he was sure. Well, Duo wasn't quite sure about that; he didn't know his own parents or if they were even still alive. For all he knew, he was a test tube baby too. Doubtful because he figured a couple would keep a test tube baby because of all the cash they had to shell out for it.

Regardless, Duo wondered if that self-loathing is what "Solo" was feeling. Or maybe "Solo" wanted to entertain some fantasy where he was kidnapped from his family or whatever and forced into this life. Unfortunately, all the information on the flashdrive contradicted that. The person writing the reports was too sure of what was going on; there was no other alternative to what was being written.

That ultimately led Duo to try and decide what to do next. Should he try and contact the guys, let them know where he was and give them the flashdrive so they could give it to someone who could make more sense out of it? That sounded like the right thing to do…but he was hesitating.

Going back also meant that he was going to have to explain what happened back at the base. Knowing Trowa would only be able to tell what he had seen and what he had seen was pretty much what had happened, Duo knew he would be in a lot of trouble. He knew that he had botched up that assignment and call him a coward if you wanted to, he did not want to go in and pay the piper just yet.

Then there was what was going to happen to "Solo." The guys were going to come to the same conclusion he had, especially if they got a hold of what "Solo" knew. They would find out one way or another that "Solo" was the prototype that was made. Since the law of the land was to destroy any illegal weapons…would that mean that "Solo" would be killed in the spirit of this?

Maybe it was because "Solo" looked so much like Solo but Duo didn't want that happening. He wasn't sure what he would do if that were to occur. He understood that it would need to be done but such a case like this had never happened before. If the illegal weapon looked, walked, talked, _breathed_ like a human, would it still be classified as a weapon?

So much morals and ethics (not that he ever concerned himself with those) were embroiled in this. Plus, if "Solo" was called a weapon and destroyed, how long until it was his turn? He was trained to be a killing machine, given a nearly indestructible Mobile Suit, and set loose on the planet; wouldn't he too be considered a weapon?

He needed some sleep. He couldn't think straight anymore, he was so tired. He figured that he'd be able to make more sense after some rest.

That brings up the latest dilemma and not the last one he was going to face. Where were they going to crash 'til morning?

Going back to the apartment he lived in was out of the question. Who knows if it was being watched? Odds are it was but Duo didn't want to take that chance.

There were other choices, though he was wary of using any of them. Thanks to stopping by his hidden cache, they had some money to spend at a motel. While cash didn't give you a paper trail, anyone searching such establishments would ask the personnel if someone matching his description had shown up. If that car had been found by now, they would certainly be asking around those places.

The other options they had weren't viable, some bordering on desperation. One was to break into someone's house, preferable one not in use at the moment. Another was to find an abandoned building. The last was to endure the streets themselves. Both of the latter two options involved heading for the slums and he didn't want to go back there just yet.

Motel it would have to be then. Time to get as far away from downtown.

It was mass transit to the rescue and the two of them were on their way to the city limits. While wanting to collapse in his seat, Duo knew he had to think of something that would not tip off anyone that he was in town. If they already knew he was here, then he couldn't make his presence too well known.

He didn't have to look to know that "Solo" was shifting uncomfortably beside him and that was just irritating him. Couldn't he sit still like he did back on the car ride? Sheesh, it was like he had too much coffee or something.

Then it occurred to him that there was a way to get a motel room without him actually going in to purchase it.

There were two of them, right? With a little coaching, "Solo" could go to the front desk and get the room. The problem was that "Solo" needed to know what he was talking about and he doubted the blond knew about how to exchange currency for products and services.

Another crash course lesson it was then.

* * *

><p>While the three ex-pilots went to and fro from Preventers HQ, none were aware that they had a set of eyes on them, keeping track of their movements.<p>

From a building that looked like every other building in Sanc, one that rested literally across the street, a pair of binoculars watched the building's entrance like a hawk.

The office in which these two men took residence was not in use, practically barren. If anyone cared to look into it, they would find that this precise office was up for rent though no one had come forth to put a lease on it just yet.

It made it perfect for them to keep an eye on their targets without raising suspicion.

"The targets have not left their nests," the man with the binoculars reported, not moving any muscles other than those related to his jaw.

"How sure are we that they'll lead us to the parcel?" the other man asked as he relayed this latest report, one made hourly, to their commander.

"Whether they know it or not, they are looking for the parcel. We can't let them get their hands on it before we can," the first man said. "Now would be a good time to relieve the tail and put some fresh men on the trail. I doubt they'll be leaving anytime tonight but we can't afford to take that risk."

"Naturally," the second man replied as he picked up a cell phone. "I don't care to find out what that mad scientist would do if we fuck up."

"Don't you mean Commander Farrell?" the first man asked.

"You really think the Commander is in charge?" the second man scoffed. "I mean, sure, he'll try to protect us; he has honor. The Doc, he creeps the fuck out of me."

* * *

><p>Barely a muffled oomph and Duo was sprawled over the queen-sized bed in the cramped motel room. Unfortunately, there was only one bed as "Solo" had been talked into getting a single instead of the double Duo had coached him to order.<p>

Because he hadn't been at the front desk and the clerk had been dubious, the blond had been convinced to get the single instead as he wouldn't be wasting money on a bed "he wouldn't use."

The next opportunity he got, Duo was going to put two in that asshole's head. Now he was going to have to share and the braided one was not in the mood for sharing anything right about now.

Peeking an eye out to glance over at the blond who had taken a seat in the single chair that the room possessed, Duo sighed and said, "It ain't your fault. Ya got railroaded, okay? I'll get over it."

Silence. Just another thing to irritate Duo. He hadn't gone through two freakin' wars in order to get the same treatment from a different person. Still, at least he wasn't being ignored or indulged. To Duo, it looked like the target of his current annoyance was uncomfortable, both with himself and his surroundings.

"Still thinking about what we found out?" Duo questioned. "I don't blame you. It was a lot to take in."

"There's still a lot we didn't get to," "Solo" said, not looking up at Duo.

"Using the contractions, not bad," Duo praised him. Then, getting serious, "Personally, I think we found the bulk of what was important on that flashdrive. Yes there's more but it's probably just supplemental stuff. What I'm curious about is what's on the other one."

"The one your comrade had," "Solo" stated. "Why haven't you contacted him or your organization yet?"

"That's…complicated," Duo said at last, a few minutes passing between them in silence. "To be honest, I didn't want to be part of the Preventers on a full time basis. Got fuckin' shanghaied is what happened. Plus, I don't trust them."

"Why don't you? You're a member of their organization, correct?" "Solo" asked.

"To a degree, I trust them to do the right thing," Duo conceded, "but in this case, I'm not so sure. Let's say they get the flashdrive, get the information that we just went over, and they come to the same conclusion that I have. What do you think they'll want to do with you?"

"Use me, if your conclusion is indeed correct," "Solo" said softly. Hmm, still a bit of denial there though Duo took it as a good sign that he wasn't completely rejecting the possibility.

"I ever tell you about the protocol Preventers take towards illegal weapons?" Duo asked. Without waiting for an answer, he continued, "Like I told you, the Preventers is a group that is the sole military force in the solar system that tends to lean towards policing than actual militaristic practices. Policing has a whole bunch of rules that differ from those of a military and since the Preventers have a global and spatial jurisdiction, they're looking after everybody.

"Preventers, by now, have done a lot of stuff, from busting up potential rebel factions, dealing with terrorist threats to shutting down arms and Mobile Suit factories, and seizing illegal and black market weapons. They've never dealt with the possibility that a weapon could be organic and without any previous precedents, they're most likely going to go with the default option, obey the rule of law to the letter…and terminate the weapon."

He didn't have to be a genius to see "Solo" still in his seat, his body tensing in that familiar fight-or-flight response. Stressed, huh? Well, you weren't alone there brother.

"And before you ask," Duo added, "I don't have enough clout or anything really to try and protect you if we do go to them. I doubt the guys…I work closely with…would take my side anyway. I don't want to risk that. Not yet."

"_Zis __is __fucked __up_," "Solo" muttered in that voice again, making Duo wince at that. Again, not aware that he had said anything, "Solo" asked, "Why are you taking sure risks for me? You do not…don't have any reason to do so."

"I have ta look after ya," Duo answered, his L2 accent slipping out. Huh, that hadn't happened in a long time… He must be really out of it or really, really tired. "Gotta take care of da ones that can't take care of themselves. You…er, Solo taught me that a long time ago."

"So it is because I look like your friend?" "Solo" asked, subtly implying that perhaps Duo's intentions weren't devoid of some self-interest.

But was he right? Duo wanted to retort to that almost immediately but he couldn't bring himself to do so. Would he be doing the same thing, risking everything he knew for someone who didn't look like Solo? As much as he'd like to say that he would, his doubts about that were too strong to simply dismiss.

"I don't know the answer to that," Duo finally sighed. "I don't know what I would do if you looked like somebody else. But I have to ask, why did you follow me? Back at that base? You're in the middle of an escape, you meet up with me, then you could have gone to another portion of the base but you didn't."

"I do not have an answer for that," "Solo" admitted. "I felt a desire to follow after you though I do not know why."

"You're lapsing," Duo said, chuckling. "Use the contractions, man. They're your best friends."

"Why are you so focused on contractions?" "Solo" wondered.

"I guess to get my mind off things," Duo said after some thought. "This whole thing, it's all fucked up. Nevertheless, I want to get to the bottom of this. Whoever is in charge of Project Goliath is messing with things he has no right to."

"So how do you propose to do that?" "Solo" asked.

"Don't know, too tired to think," Duo yawned. "Need sleep."

"Should I keep watch?" "Solo" asked.

"Ya can if ya want," Duo answered him. "If ya get tired an' need some sleep, don't bother stayin' up. I don't think…anybody on da planet knows we're here."

If there was anything else said, Duo was unaware of it as he drifted off into slumber.


	9. Chapter 9

Author's Note: Hope you all had a happy holiday but it's not over yet. New Year's is coming up so you guys be careful out there. For the last of 2011, there will be no new updates but keep an eye out in 2012. I'd like to add a thank you to the anonymous reviewer called wraith. I really appreciate what you wrote and if I could have responded to you sooner, I would have liked to. I do agree with what you said and all I can say now is to look at the big picture. What that picture is I have yet to reveal but when all is said and done, and it will be, perhaps we'll both have better understanding of Duo's decisions. It's as much a journey for me as it is for you so stick around and we can meet the end together. So wraith and everyone else, enjoy.

Warning: language

Chapter 9

It took about a few days to really get through the information Trowa had copied but by then, Duo figured they had exhausted the whole thing. There wasn't going to be anything else to find out. Nothing on the flashdrive hinted at what the MIRS was, why some of the documents mentioned lyrithium but didn't say what it would be used for, or how those involved were even able to afford anything that was mentioned.

It wasn't much of a stretch; the flashdrive that Trowa had had that information on it and by now, it was being analyzed by the tech geeks back at HQ. Odds are Trowa didn't get a real good look at the information he copied so going up and asking him if he knew what was on it was not the best course of action.

If Duo wanted to get his hands on that information, he was going to have to go to the Preventers themselves and he knew how that was going to work out. He was not going to be told anything, ordered to explain what had happened to botch their mission, and then he would either be put on suspension or held somewhere until everything cooled down.

If he wanted to keep an eye on "Solo," he was going to have to not let that happen. So what other options did he have outside of breaking in to the place, finding the archives and accessing the information from there where cyber security wasn't as strong? Well, he could just say that the information wasn't important but that was a flat out lie.

And let's not get into the fact that Preventers HQ was the last place he wanted to be, even before all this shit began.

Still, it was better knowing what was going on so that he could better prepare for when those Project Goliath guys came back to get their weapon back. He wanted to know just what he was fighting against and why. Most of all, he wanted to know just how close they were to putting a complete stamp on the whole thing.

By now, "Solo" wanted to know more and Duo found that he couldn't deny him, especially not with that look of determination that had flashed briefly. That look sent shivers down his spine, reminding him of his childhood mentor once more. If he didn't know any better, he'd have to say his friend was somewhere deep in there, trying to find some way to get out. Too much fantasy, that idea, and Duo scrapped that thought as soon as he thought of it.

Now that he was more rested than he had been, he could think easier. Putting his mind towards scheming how to get into Preventers HQ, he had discarded taking the tactics he and the guys had used back at the base. They were going to have to be more subtle here. Duo knew this place much better than the base and he knew just how much traffic was in there.

How were they going to blend in with the place and not arouse any suspicions? More specifically, how would they be able to reach the archives without anyone stopping them or becoming suspicious of the two men who wanted in?

Sure the archives were there to store files from past cases and whatnot but usually you had to have a reason outside of just going in for some light reading. No, Une didn't want anybody going in there unless they had business there. Otherwise, the place could be breach by certain parties wanting to destroy potential evidence in case it could be used against them in the future.

They weren't going in there to destroy anything but since the Preventers were looking for him, they were going to stop him and then he'd be fucked.

So who could go into the archives with little to no thought and no one would think twice about it?

As if serendipity struck him, Duo knew how and it was fortunate that "Solo" was so open to his ideas.

* * *

><p>The car theft lead hadn't gotten them anywhere closer to finding Maxwell, something that slightly grated on Wufei's nerves. He wasn't the type of guy who liked investigating. Yes he was good at it and ferreting out any other information that was necessary but he liked taking a more hands on approach.<p>

It was only his time spent as a scholar in his younger years that had kept him patient with this thus far. Still, he knew he had to calm down or he would miss something, perhaps that tantalizing clue that would lead him straight to where Maxwell was hiding and he could put an end to this.

His partners in this endeavor were expressing different thoughts. Winner looked more and more worried and was always asking about what it was that was keeping Maxwell from either contacting them or returning. Barton on the other hand expressed very little, a poker face that was probably best suited for this. Never letting on if he was disappointed that a lead didn't pan out or if he too was wondering the same things as both Winner and him.

At least they had someone level-headed in this. Someone who was more neutral than anything. However, he couldn't discount Winner's bubbling theories that Maxwell may have been caught by now. He doubted that Maxwell would be captured so easily though there were a couple of occasions that argued against that. Regardless, they also had to consider that Maxwell hadn't been captured either.

If that was the case, why hadn't Maxwell tried to reach them yet? Was he afraid of some kind of consequences if he came back? Cowardly but he couldn't blame him either. From what Barton had reported, Maxwell had been the reason for the catastrophe that had occurred during their assignment. If he had really messed up, it was his duty to return and accept the consequences.

He was losing sleep over this mess. He had better things to do than to chase after a wayward teammate all over the damn continent. However, even he couldn't keep out the rogue thought that Maxwell was injured somewhere and he would have to give a small prayer that he would at least be okay.

He was not heartless; he felt companionship with the other pilots and every once in a while he was concerned for their well-being. War, it was such a trial to endure and no one experienced it the same way as someone else. Each of the other pilots had their tales of tragedy and doubts about the wars and he could respect that as he too had lost and doubted.

But the wars were over and it was up to them to keep the peace they had given up so much for.

He was very dedicated to this end, so much so that he knew the couch in the breakroom better than his own bed. It was from there that he rose and made his way back to his cubicle to start up the search for Maxwell along the way. About a half hour of work later, Barton and Winner showed up, Winner presenting donuts and Barton coffee. He accepted the below par breakfast; usually he liked to get a well-balanced one but there were always times when such a thing was not practical.

"So, we last left off with the results from the car in impound, right?" Winner asked, trying to center them as they all got back into the grind of things.

"That would be correct," Barton said as he pulled out the report on the search of the car. "With the exception of what was missing, nothing new was found. If the driver's seat had been left, perhaps we could have found a hair that might have belonged to Duo."

"What about the footprints we found?" Wufei asked, frowning at what looked like to be another dead-end.

"Those are here too," Barton said as he turned to another page. "The set found on the passenger side were unidentifiable. We did get an estimated shoe size: thirteen and a half. The set on the driver's side did have a match; the pattern was that of Preventer issued field boots."

Ah, the boots, something that was tailored for the Preventers so that if their footprints turned up at the sight of a mission, they would be able to eliminate the prints or confirm that one of their own was rogue. What was more was that Une had a regulation out that any pair of boots was not to leave any Preventers headquarter outside of field missions. Finding them anywhere else meant that someone had either disobeyed or was in the middle of a mission.

"We'll have to cross-check those prints," Wufei said, "find out if, on the off chance, there was another Preventers operative in the area as well as Maxwell's size for comparison. If so, then we'll know that Maxwell is in the city. Is there anything else?"

"Not much," Barton shrugged. "The car had signs of being hotwired but due to the state of it, forensics couldn't be too sure."

"I received word of a shooting in the area," Winner piped up. "I wasn't able to get many details, though. Those involved are in critical condition, natives of the area from what I've heard, and they aren't talking. Whether it's related to Duo or not, I wasn't able to find out."

"So it could be another dead-end," Wufei commented. "It begs the question of if Duo stole the car, why did he drive it all the way into the limits of Sanc, leave it, and shoot a few locals? Despite his rashness, I know that he isn't the type to pick a random fight without just cause."

"So you do pay attention," Winner nodded appreciatively at him.

"Believe what you want," Wufei shrugged as he got up. "I'm going to try and see if I can get into Maxwell's locker and locate a possible spare set of boots, for comparison purposes. I want you two to follow up on our other leads."

"Roger that," Barton said, spinning around in his seat to face his computer monitor.

With that, he left the two ex-pilots, walking quickly towards Une's office to receive permission for the locker invasion. It was protocol, plus few agents would be pleased if it was found that their lockers could be searched through on a whim.

Leaving the section of the floor where the ex-Gundam pilots were located, he had to dodge as an unexpected janitor trolley pushed out of the elevator and nearly ran him over.

"Excuse me," the janitor said, his head turning from side to side in confusion before it tilted to a side, as if listening to something. "Uh…wrong floor."

Wufei rolled his eyes and walked around, not having time for this. The janitorial services must be accepting anyone who could use a mop. Really, there needed to be some higher standards if one of the employees had trouble using an elevator.

* * *

><p>As the janitor pulled back into the elevator, the doors closing in front of him, the trashcan on his trolley began to snap at him.<p>

"You went a floor too high! It's the fourth floor, not the fifth! Did you slip and accidentally press five instead of four?"

"Yes…" the janitor said, green eyes darting nervously from side to side as if expecting to be attacked at any second.

"…I guess we all make mistakes sometimes," the trashcan sighed. "Just try to keep the mistakes few and in-between. We almost got caught back there."

Before the janitor could say anything else, the elevator came to a stop and the doors pulled open. Squaring his shoulders, he pushed the trolley out of the small enclosure, moving slower this time so that he didn't run over somebody else.

Within the trashcan, covered in a thin layer of discarded paper towels and papers hid Duo Maxwell who kept himself as quiet as possible. He had given instructions to the disguised "Solo" on where to go once leaving the hanging metal box they had just left. Trying to give directions to a guy while you're hiding was not the best way to sneak around a place. The only reason he had known that they had been on the wrong floor had been when Wufei had spoken up and "Solo" had said wrong floor.

The layouts of the fourth and fifth floors differed slightly as you couldn't go straight forward on the fifth floor, only left and right, while the fourth allowed you to have three different choices instead. "Solo" must have realized from his descriptions that he had fucked up.

Still, they were lucky that Wufei hadn't been curious enough to get a better look at the "janitor" that had almost run him over.

No sense getting pissed over spilled milk and might-have-beens.

Okay, he thought to himself, they needed to head straight ahead into the hallway that intersected with the elevators and stop at the fourth door on the right. It kinda helped that it was also the last door on the right before the hallway itself took a turn.

He could feel the janitor trolley slow down as they reached where they needed to go and it was here that everything hinged on "Solo's" "acting" abilities. If he sounded anything like Heero did with that damn inflectionless voice, they'd raise too much attention. Got to make it sound like you were doing a job and wanted to get it over with as fast as possible. Harried was an appropriate term for that.

He heard a door open, the trolley shifted in direction as "Solo" began pulling it instead of pushing. There was an awkward moment before he heard the door close and it was a noise that sounded like a death knell to him. This was it, the point-of-no-return. Either they were screwed here or they would pass the threshold they absolutely needed to cross.

"Scheduled cleaning," he heard "Solo" announce gruffly, trying the mimic the tone that he had tried to coach him into using before they left the motel.

Silence for a second, a second too long for Duo's taste when there was a buzzer. The trolley began moving again, bouncing upward for a second before it was smooth sailing. A door closed…

Taking a chance, he hissed," Is it clear?"

"Clear," "Solo" answered.

Carefully, he peeked his head out of the trashcan, paper material sliding off of him as he rose. A quick scan of the currently dimmed room where lines of file cabinets stretched as far as the eye could see, shelves littered with boxes lined the walls and a table with computer equipment set up rested a various points.

There were no other sounds in here other than the light buzzing from the light fixtures that hadn't been brightened yet. They were in.

He pulled himself out of the trashcan, practically heedless of the trash that slipped out with him. "Clean that up," he ordered, "I'll get the computer up."

He heard no complain so he searched for a computer that was not visible to the only entrance. Before he parted from his partner in crime, he turned up the intensity of the light, the fixtures brightening slowly but surely. The place was supposed to be undergoing cleaning; no janitor came in here and left the lights on dim.

Finding a computer station, he sat down and booted the machine up, hacking into the network as soon as the screensaver popped up demanding an ID and password. He had thought about putting his in but he had a feeling that would have screwed him over later on. No one would have expected him to enter the Preventer computer network, especially if they thought he was not in the building. Still, best not to take the chance just yet.

"Solo" soon joined up with him as Duo made a quick search for anything pertaining to the recent bungled mission, specifically anything recovered from it. He wasn't surprised to meet up with some firewalls, ones placed on cases that were still actively being investigated. As a double whammy, there were also the top secret firewalls up to make it harder to access.

Une was expecting someone from the outside to try and get in and from what he knew, he wouldn't put it past those Project Goliath guys to try.

Fortunately, he wasn't one of those guys and he was using a terminal in the Preventers' network. Not as tight security but still pretty tough to deal with.

Time to hack the bitch.

He cracked his knuckles and readied himself, taking in a deep breath to mentally prepare himself for mental gymnastics he was to put himself through before his fingers began rapidly tapping on the keys.

The image on the monitor changed as information flashed onto it, constantly moving as Duo searched urgently for a chink in the supposedly impenetrable Preventers cyber security. Without pause, his fingers danced over the keys in a dance they seemed to know by heart while his eyes read between the lines and characters that greeted him.

To his side, "Solo" took his place, leaning down slightly as he watched the braided one with wide eyes, not really comprehending what he was doing. If he had to have an idea thought, Duo noted that "Solo" apparently had no knowledge of computer hacking. The guys who were training him were focusing more on the physical battlefield than the cyber one.

Wait, what was—oh, that was Heero's touch right there! Duo wasn't the greatest computer hacker out there but he was above average, way above average. It also helped that he knew a few of the ins-and-outs of the way Heero made programs.

It was a familiar pattern and with the correct taps of certain keys, he was passed all the firewalls and had direct access to the files they were after.

"We're in," he announced.

* * *

><p>Trowa glanced up from his computer terminal for a second, spotting Wufei returning and returned his gaze back to the monitor. The other agent had been gone for a while and he was curious about anything that he may have found out in that time.<p>

As Wufei reached hearing distance, Trowa asked mildly, "Anything?"

"I was able to get my hands on Maxwell's spare pair of boots and had them brought to forensics," Wufei answered him as he took a seat. "As usual, they were backlogged but thankfully, the Director has given our case a top priority. They made a match with the prints we found in the car."

"So they were Duo's?" Quatre asked.

"Identical from the boot pattern to the shoe size," Wufei confirmed. "To be sure, I had them dig up the shoe sizes of other agents who were similar and then checked on their whereabouts. The prints we found were Maxwell's, no doubt."

"So he is in Sanc," Trowa said.

"But he hasn't contacted us yet, why?" Quatre wondered, his frown deepening.

"Do you think it's possible that he's still being chased?" Trowa suggested. "Perhaps whoever inhabited that base was right on his heels."

"Maybe but no witnesses were found that could tell us when that car was parked or how it got into that condition," Wufei grimaced. "No witnesses were found, either, that could tell us if anyone else checked on the car in-between the time it was parked and we arrived."

"A dead-end that tells us that Duo's in the city and not captured?" Quatre asked out loud, not expecting an answer, or at least one immediate. "Is it just me or is something not making sense here?"

"You're not alone," Trowa told him. "I believe it is safe to say that we're all perplexed." No one talked for a minute, allowing the information they had discovered to digest a bit. A thought occurred to the green-eyed youth and he aired it to the others. "We have agents at Duo's apartment, correct?"

"Naturally, Une put some agents there to guard the premise as soon as we became aware of Maxwell's missing-in-action," Wufei informed them. "At the time, it was more of an off chance than anything. She didn't expect that Maxwell would reach the city but if he did and was heading for his apartment, there would be our people waiting to secure and assist him should it be required."

"Check in with them, see if anything peculiar has occurred," Trowa told him. "Knowing Duo, he might try to sneak in without them knowing he's there."

"A possibility but it's better than nothing," Wufei sighed as he got up. "I'll inform the Director of our progress while I'm at it."

* * *

><p>How much did Trowa put on to these flashdrives anyway? He must have filled them both to the brim or something.<p>

There was just so much here, more than he had figured there would be. He doubted they would be able to go through everything before they were detected. So how were they supposed to know what was important and what wasn't?

They may have come here with some specific things to find out but how could they tell what was what when they didn't have the actual flashdrive that the information had come from? Duo had a feeling that the small device would be missed if they swiped it. Perhaps some of the reports might sum things up for them.

Trying to move as fast as he could, he skimmed over most information to try and find what was most important or related to what he already knew. A report that caught his eye mentioned Lyrithine and listed the file from where it was retrieved. Without pause he located the file, skimming over a bit of it before taking a risk and pressing the print button.

Too little time to stick around here and read everything.

While the printer started its work, he opened up other reports and files, moving as fast as he could. "Solo" was watching him, paying less attention to what was on the screen, probably due to not being able to keep up with his speed.

Looks like speed reading was not part of his training program, huh?

Due to how fast he was working, he almost missed something. Had it not been for the capitalized letters of MIRS, he would have skipped over it but noticing how many times it was being mentioned in a single paragraph and soon the whole page, he decided to print the file too after debating whether or not to read more in depth. Later, he told himself. Right now he was not in the frame of mind to really read the damn thing. He'd miss a lot, he figured.

A loud beeping sound spooked him and he snapped his head around, trying to find the source of it. The beeping didn't last long, though, so while he continued to look for where it had come from, he became increasingly clueless when he couldn't find it.

"Um, the thing stopped working," "Solo" told him just as Duo was about to dismiss his search as a lost cause.

"What stopped working?" he asked, wondering what the blond was talking about.

"That," "Solo" gestured towards the printer that was currently deactivated.

Duo frowned; the thing was just not printing, so what? It couldn't print forever, you know, and when it had copied everything he sent to it, the machine would stop printing. Still, best to grab that nice stack of paper that was forming, give more room to other files he wanted to print and…

He had just reached the printer and had noticed some words flashing on the display that captured his attention. Out of paper? What? Who had forgotten to fill the damn thing last time? A thought arose in head; what if that beep from earlier had been from the printer? Snatching up the most recently printed page, he found to his dismay that the very last line had been cut off right in the middle.

Fuck.

They were going to need more paper for this machine.

Something was bugging him, though. It had been ever since he had managed to hack into those classified files. What it could be, it just didn't click in his head but whatever it was, it kept hinting that he didn't have a lot of time. But what could it be?

Looking back at the computer monitor, an ominous feeling growing within him, he saw the monitor flicker for a second before something else popped up on the screen.

**YOU DO NOT HAVE AUTHORIZED ACCESS TO THESE DOCUMENTS**

**WINDOWS SHUTTING DOWN**

Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit! The moment he had gotten through, he knew that he only had a small window of opportunity to get what he needed. It was a failsafe, a backup system in place just in the off chance someone had managed to successfully hack into the system. The computer he had been using was now hacked and by now the guys in charge were scrambling to find out where it was located.

Time was up.

Was it ironic that he had been part of the set up for this failsafe? Stupid of him to have forgotten about it but this was the first time that it was being used.

Snatching what had already been printed, he hissed to "Solo," "We gotta bail!"

"What? Why?" "Solo" demanded, following after him quickly.

"The system's looking for us," he shouted back as he reached the janitor's trolley.

"Shouldn't we turn it off?" "Solo" asked, referring to the computer.

"No time; we're out of that anyway," Duo answered, climbing back into the trashcan. "The hack's detected and they're about to find out that it was this computer. The time to be going is now. Turn the light off and let's get!"

* * *

><p>Trowa jerked back from his computer as a shrill beep blasted out of the computer speakers, a pop up popping up on his monitor.<p>

An intruder had been detected in the building. Orders were to begin a floor-to-floor search while the tech guys tried to locate the trespasser.

"We have a code red," he told Wufei and Quatre.

"Location?" Quatre demanded as he pulled out his sidearm.

"Unknown, search this floor first," Trowa stated as he followed a more bullish Wufei. "Take your phone so we're in contact."

He didn't have to look to know that other agents were scrambling around as well, all searching for their elusive intruder. It didn't stop Trowa from wondering how whoever it was got in, what they were doing, or what they were looking for. If only a location had been found…

A couple minutes had passed and it was looking like this floor was clear. Then Quatre checked his phone.

"They found where they are," the blond reported. "Fourth floor, archives."

Wufei swore and was leading the charge to the stairs, shouting out the orders to stop all elevators. Anyone trapped would have to deal with it until they had caught the ballsy infiltrator.

A moment later, they were at the archives after practically jumping down flights of stairs to join other agents who had it staked out. A quick status report revealed that a few agents had already entered and were searching the expansive room for any clue that may have been left. By now, it was assumed that the spy within had either hightailed it or was still hiding in there.

While Wufei went in to join the searching agents, Trowa thought it would be best to know what to look for. The agent manning the checkpoint looked shaken, not used to being in the midst of such activity. Knowing what he knew about traffic into the archives, Trowa knew that all this was unprecedented. They probably hadn't had this many people in this particular room since it was first built.

"What have you found out?" he asked a nearby agent who was scrutinizing the man who was supposed to be guarding the glorified vault that held all their records.

"Not much," the investigating agent groused. "Our clerk here is probably more stumped than we are. According to him, the only people who've been in here are the janitors."

"Then we'll have to interview our janitors," Trowa stated simply. "Odds are, they know who was in here or saw someone they didn't know. It's something, not much, but it's something."

"Christ," the agent grumbled.

By then, Wufei was rejoining them and looking absolutely put off. "They accessed classified documents," he spat out. "Left one of our computers on, like they were taunting us."

"Perhaps they were in a hurry," Trowa suggested.

"Did you find out anything out here?" Wufei demanded, his patience obviously frayed.

"According to the man managing the desk, only janitors have been in here recently," Trowa replied. "I figure we find them all and see if they saw anything."

Wufei paused for a moment, as if a thought had occurred to him. "Or it was a janitor who was the one going through those files."

* * *

><p>By now they had ditched the janitor trolley but it was for good reason. While it seemed like everyone was heading for the archives, Duo had instructed "Solo" to head for the second floor. From there they would enter the parking garage that was hopefully reporter-free and do something that he considered ballsy.<p>

They would drive his car out the front gate. The garage entrance had probably been instructed not to let anyone in but since everyone was so busy searching for them inside, there was a chance that nobody had informed the guard who kept an eye out for all comings and goings in the place.

To do that, they were going to use his car. He didn't trust "Solo" to drive it so that's where ballsy really came into play. It had "bad idea" written all over it but was there any other way out of Preventers' headquarters? The plan had been to sneak out the way they came in and due to a lapse in memory, they wouldn't be able to do that now.

They had been lucky enough to get this far before a lockdown on the building had been called.

Thus far, the sole catch that was on Duo's mind was that he had left his keys in his locker along with all the other stuff he had brought with him before going out on this crazy mission. Without the keys to his car, he was going to have to hotwire it.

Something caught his eye, stopping him short, the backpack on his back weighing heavily on the straps. Hmm, or maybe he wouldn't have to hotwire _his_ car. Maybe he had also been too hasty in wishing for a reporter-free garage as well.

Crouching behind a car, pulling "Solo" down behind him, Duo took advantage of his position to spy on a very familiar blonde who had yet to take a hint to stop coming around. Maybe it was time to show her just why you didn't hang around places like this, searching for a scoop that wasn't going to come.

This wasn't going to be a scoop, per se, as this did not have anything to do with an overreaching government. At least, that's what Duo supposed for the time being.

"See her?" he asked the blond beside him, "Solo" nodding in answer. "She's our ticket out of here. I don't want her seeing me so I want you to go over there and abduct her. Don't gouge her eyes out; there's no reason to inspire anyone to start suing us right now."

Another nod though Duo doubted half of what he said was understood. He watched as "Solo" made a beeline straight to the unsuspecting young lady, his heart beginning to pound in his chest when "Solo" made contact with her. He couldn't hear what was being said but he could tell that Ms. Carrey over there was becoming irritated.

He couldn't stop the wince that came when "Solo" began manhandling her, the woman demanding him to let go. If she only knew that the way to get out of that iron grip was for "Solo" to willingly release her and that wasn't going to happen.

Then she began screaming.

"HELP! RAPE!" Jessica Carrey cried out as she struggled with the blond. Apparently, her screams had alarmed "Solo." Duo knew that from the way the blond laid a quick chop to the back of the reporter's neck and she suddenly went limp.

Oh, he hoped the blond hadn't killed her. Duo didn't like her but he didn't want her to get killed either. Hurrying over, the heavy backpack bouncing against him, he felt relief wash over him as he saw that she was still breathing. It was shallow but at least she wasn't dead.

"I hope you didn't hit her too hard," he told the blond. "You tend to forget your own strength."

"I only applied enough pressure to bring about unconsciousness," "Solo" grumbled back. Heh, the guy was starting to get a hang of letting his emotions out. Then again, he had to be awfully stressed right about now.

"Not going to ask what you said or tried to say to her," Duo said as he began searching her, dropping miscellaneous objects as he was looking for something specific. "However, we would have had an easier time finding her car, if she has one, with her awake. Hell, could have found out just how she keeps sneaking in here all the—found it!"

He pulled out a small loop that held several keys on it. What a girl like this needed with this many keys, he didn't know and he wasn't about to ask. Ooh, she even had a clicker. This would make things slightly easier. But they would have to check over every car they met, pressing on the damn thing until the right car lit up. Again, they could have used her awake so she could have maybe told them where she had parked.

Fuck this sucked. At the very least, he knew that the car wasn't in here. Employee only parking here. So it would have to be somewhere outside…close by. She didn't look the type to park too far away; no, she was more the type to snag the space closest to the building so she wouldn't have to walk too far.

"Now what?" "Solo" asked, eyes darting around.

"Ground floor," Duo stated. "It'll be easier to get out of here that way. Then we'll…"

He trailed off, spotting something that was on a far wall. He couldn't believe he hadn't seen it before, especially since he usually parked in this part of the garage for who knew how long. Nearly straight ahead, he picked out the small, unobtrusive shape of a camera, one that was facing right towards them.

Without another word, he spun around and began taking off at a sprint, not caring if anybody saw him. At his heels, "Solo" followed after him.


	10. Chapter 10

Author's Note: I hope you guys are having a happy new year. If not, maybe this can cheery you up. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Warning: language, violence

Chapter 10

"Something's going on over there," the man with the binoculars stated.

"How do you mean?" his partner beside him asked.

"People have stopped going in and out of the place," the first man said. "Look right there, see that small group of people? They all tried to go in over the past ten minutes but instead of doing so, they backed away. Why? I recognize a few of them as employees despite the fact that there's a pizza guy right there with them."

"You think they're on to us?" the second man asked.

"Maybe. I don't know," the first man said. "Just in case, we might want to move. If it's a false alarm, we might be able to come back."

"Hold on a sec, look down there!" the second man exclaimed.

"Who are those two?" the man murmured. "Why do they—wait. That's it! Right there!"

"You mean…?" the second man began to ask.

"Definitely. Don't recognize the short one but the tall one is our man. Tell the guys to get on their trail!"

* * *

><p>"What are you doing?" "Solo" asked, the blond watching his near-spastic movements curiously.<p>

"Searching for our unconscious friend's car," Duo replied, his hand rapidly pressing on the clicker in his hand.

"Should I have asked her what it looked like?" "Solo" wondered.

Darting across the street after making sure it was clear, Duo took a left, aiming the clicker at any parked car in sight. "Would've helped but the past is past. Gotta move forward and—"

_Beep beep._

Hold on what was that? Let's press this button again and…

_Beep beep._

"We're close," Duo reported, ignoring how "Solo" was scanning their surroundings, suspicious of the strange beeping sound that seemed to come from nowhere.

The search led them to a small parking lot. Duo recognized the small donut shop that was there as well as the internet café/coffee shop hybrid that was next door. Go to the café for coffee and the shop for the donuts, that was the rule among all repeat customers.

The headlights of a car flashed as Duo pressed the clicker button once more, smirking as he ignored the _beep beep_. They had found their ride.

Glancing at the blond who seemed stunned by the development, Duo commented, "For the dumbass consumer who couldn't find the prize in the Cracker Jack box."

Had there been a third with them, Duo would've called shotgun but since he didn't trust "Solo" driving just yet, he took the driver's seat wordlessly, dumping his backpack into "Solo's" lap. Turning on the ignition, he barely waited for "Solo" to close the passenger side door as he backed out but right before he could put the vehicle in drive, he found his way obstructed.

"What the hell…?" he grunted.

They looked like civilians but he could tell from their aggressive pace that they weren't who they appeared to be. Sure they were dressed like any ordinary pedestrians but their eyes were trained on their car and both men were reaching to their sides as if they were about to pull out guns.

Not taking the chance, Duo floored it.

The screech of tires made him wince but they were taking off, practically running down the two men who had been blocking their way. Thankfully for them, they jumped out of his way.

Soon after his suspicions about them were soon confirmed as gunshots erupted from behind. A sharp turn and Duo was heading towards the parking lot exit. Without coming to a stop, Duo pulled out onto the road, taking a left.

It was only now that he remembered that this was a one way road and he was driving in the wrong direction.

"Oh fuck me," he swore as he swerved around an unsuspecting driver who was as surprised as he was at his own stupidity. Of course, that dodge put him in the path of another driver who he had to swerve around as well.

Spying an intersection street to his far left, the complex that was Preventers HQ blocking the entire right side of the road, Duo gritted his teeth and angled the stolen car towards their nearest opening of salvation. He was really cutting it close though he was thankfully as the other drivers whose path he was cutting off were applying their brakes quite liberally.

The car shook as another vehicle scraped the back bumper but they had left the one way road mostly intact. Duo managed to jerk the car into a more stable course though he did not slow down in the slightest. He probably should, though, as he could see the traffic lights up ahead and the building line of cars stopped in front of it.

Before he could make a decision as to follow the traffic laws or put some bystanders in danger, a large, white panel van pulled out behind them and he could see through the rearview mirror that someone was sticking out an arm that held a pistol in hand.

The inevitable shots that were fired pretty much sealed the deal, especially since they were striking the trunk of the car.

With a sharp spin of the steering wheel, Duo pulled the car right onto the sidewalk, blaring his horn at the idiots who hadn't noticed his illegal driving maneuver. Behind him, the van copied his action but the guys in that vehicle weren't as mindful of the pedestrians around as they continued to fire shots at them.

"Think you can do something about that?" he snapped over at "Solo" who had been mostly quiet this entire time, his hand gripped on the overhead handle beside the passenger door. Green eyes darted towards him for a split second before "Solo's" other hand drew out his own gun.

Without pausing to lower the window, "Solo" twisted around in his seat as he smashed his hand through the Plexiglas window, leaning his upper body slightly out of the opening to return some more accurate fire at their pursuers. The backpack that had once rested on his lap had slid down to the floor.

The van's driver veered unsteadily as bullets cut holes into the windshield, the driver trying to at least dodge the shots himself. "Solo" pulled back into the car, conserving his shots for the time being.

It was probably in the nick of time that he pulled back in. Coming to the intersection, Duo swung a hard right, skidding off the sidewalk and back onto the road. The van tried to copy the maneuver but its weight was used against it as its rear end slammed into the back of an innocent bystander's car. Due to its size and weight, though, the van was more than able to resume the chase, its tires squealing against the pavement as it continued its pursuit.

Up ahead, Duo was weaving through traffic, not stopping in swearing at the other cars who seemed oblivious to the chase they were involved in. It was like they were in their own little worlds, ignoring everything around them until it was impossible to ignore. They were probably talking on their cell phones which would have explained it. Duo had stopped blaring the car horn some time ago, hoping that the noise wouldn't attract the attention of their chasers towards them.

He never lost sight of that van though, and he found himself smirking slightly as the vehicle seemed to slow down. Eyes back on the road, he took a left, trying not to bring too much notice to them. Trying to drive as slow as the other fuckers on the road would camouflage them, hopefully long enough for them to get away.

That was where their luck ended because the guys chasing them weren't just using that van. They were also using smaller cars, one of which had pulled up next to them.

His sharp instincts were the only thing that saved him because he had a sudden urge to glance to his right just in time to see someone aiming a gun straight at him.

"Solo's" arm shot out and pushed him back against his seat roughly, discharging his ammo into the other car, shattering the driver side window and hitting the passenger in the other car.

Stepping on the accelerator, they were taking off again, another small car matching their speed.

There was only one way this could get any worse.

A loud siren screeched, red and blue lights flaring as a Preventers' car joined in the pursuit.

Shit. Things just got worse.

* * *

><p>Sliding into a government issued car, the three ex-pilots now Preventer agents were joining in on the downtown chase that was happening.<p>

Wufei had taken the wheel, Trowa snatching up the remaining front seat leaving Quatre in the back. The radio was turned on loud and the two in front were debating a route to possibly cut these lawbreakers off.

Whether the intruder was involved, they did not know but it was a possible lead they had. The clues they had found gave an impression that the intruder was going to try and get away via automobile.

By now, they had discovered the abandoned janitor trolley just outside the parking garage. After putting word out to seal the garage or at least get it covered so that anyone fleeing the premise would be spotting, the three had searched the garage themselves and had found the unconscious reporter that had been plaguing their early mornings for quite some time.

Seeing a few items from her purse scattered on the concrete ground, it hadn't taken them long to figure out that their intruder had been searching for her keys. That meant the intruder would be attempting to use her car to escape.

Then the gunshots were heard across the street, a car was seen driving the wrong way on a one-way street, then the reports of a chase in downtown with an unidentified van started coming in.

There was something fishy about this but the three pilots figured they'd get to the bottom of it by capturing these public disrupters.

Once again, the question of whether the intruder was involved was debatable but what were the odds that that someone would fire a gun near Preventers headquarter and a car chase would ensue? Pretty damn low, that's what.

"They're heading east on Athens Boulevard," Wufei stated. "What's the fastest route to the freeway? We can cut them off at that intersection."

"Heights has the fewest lights but would require us to backtrack," Trowa responded. "If we took Tenth Avenue then got onto Banks, it would take us a block past the intersection of Athens and freeway but the lights would back up traffic."

"What about Main?" Quatre asked. "There are a lot of back alleys we could use—"

"All of which are not in good condition and are filled with blockage," Wufei replied. "We'd do better to follow them on their current course than to do—"

_All units, be advised, suspects' vehicles have left the main roads. I repeat, the suspects have left the main roads. They are currently in the alleys and gunfire has been confirmed._

"They're heading to Main, it seems," Trowa commented as Wufei swore, adjusting their course.

"Have someone try and get these civilians away," Quatre urged. "They might be harmed by accident."

"I bet someone has already issued the orders," Trowa said. "In the meantime, we have to play catch up."

* * *

><p>Duo was scratching up the sides of the car real bad but hey, what did he care? This wasn't <em>his<em> car!

He was jostled forward as their pursuer rammed into their back bumper and he growled at their insolence. He'd gotten off the heavily populated roads for a reason and these assholes were just going to put more people in danger if they did that.

As the alley he was racing down opened up into a much large alley, he was slamming on the break even as he spun the wheel. The guys behind them were pushing them forward as they didn't hesitate to slow down but that would mess them up in three, two, one—

They were out and making an incredibly sharp right, one their chasers couldn't make as they too tried to turn. Because they were going too fast, they managed the crash head-on with a building, the back end lifting off the ground a couple feet before violently smashing back down. The Preventer unit was pulling in on the crash site, slowing down for a second before gassing it and coming after them.

Fuck, those guys didn't know he had "Solo" with him and "Solo" didn't have the same hesitation Duo had at shooting at them.

"Hold your fire!" he ordered the blond. "You don't want to shoot those guys and they're not trying to kill us either."

"Then what do you think we should do?" "Solo" asked calmly.

Coolheaded, just like the real Solo had been when they had been running from the cops back on L2. Of course, Solo tended to get more stressed when guns were used on them but he had never lost his cool.

_Pull over the vehicle now!_ the law enforcers behind them announced at them.

"Sorry pals, can't do that right now," Duo muttered as he spun the wheel sharply, braking again so that he could make the turn.

Though not as experienced as he was, the Preventers were still on their tail though they did have some distance.

Trash and discarded boxes were trampled under their wheels but it did make the ride bumpy to say the least. He barely skirted a dumpster but did lose the driver side rearview mirror in the process. He was going to miss it but at least he had the one on the passenger side and the one overhead to help.

He was peeling out into the busy street just as a couple more Preventer units were showing. Almost cut him off but he was still moving, trying to outrace them.

"Guys just don't know when to quit," he swore as he made another hard turn.

Maybe it was fate or maybe some higher power up there really hated his guts but at that moment, he passed a car in which he got a good look at the driver. For a second he found himself locking eyes with Wufei and just as quickly as it had happened he was speeding away.

"Oh please don't let that be who I thought it was," he prayed out loud but his heart sank as the car he had just passed skidded around, definitely making an illegal U-turn and joining in on the chase. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!"

"What is it?" "Solo" demanded.

Duo didn't answer as something else had attracted his attention. Up ahead at the intersection, he could plainly see the van they had been fleeing from earlier was making a return and he knew exactly what they were planning. As soon as they entered the intersection, the van was going to ram them and the driver was adjusting the van's speed for such an eventuality.

Duo had only one choice; he spun the wheel, dodging other motorist and making a left, almost touching the van's side. His teeth clenched together and his knuckles were practically white from the pressure he was exerting on them. "Solo" fired on the van's driver, the van veering away unstably into another lane and then another. The blond had probably hit his target but it was a small consolation.

Wufei's car was gaining distance on them and more Preventers had joined in on the chase. The fact that one of the pilots had spotted him was really stressing him out right about now.

Wufei had always been the best driver among them and in a high speed pursuit, he would be unmatched. Even with his skills, Duo knew it was only a matter of time and the last thing he wanted was to get caught.

Now was not a good time for that.

Again, up ahead he could see a car heading in their direction but what caught his attention this time was the fact that the driver of this car was holding their gun out the window, aiming directly at him. He was going to wait until they were close and Duo knew he was going to be eating lead at that time.

Looks like the bad guys were starting to get desperate. They were completely ignoring the Preventers that were at his heels!

Miraculously, the shot at him was never taken but that was due in part from the shot that came from behind him. The enemy driver's gun was shot out his hand, the driver pulling it back in as the gun clattered on the asphalt. Wufei must either be real good at multitasking, driving while aiming a pistol at the other driver's weapon, or he had someone in the car with him who had that kind of accuracy.

The only person or persons Duo could think up who had that kind of accuracy and would be riding with Wufei were the other Gundam pilots. This was starting to get worse and worse.

Passing by his would-be killer's car, Duo was now left with a parade of Preventers' still on him and these guys he couldn't just shoot at. At least, not without a guilty conscience.

Add to the fact that Wufei was really catching up, he didn't have a lot of time to find a way to get out of this mess. The last thing he wanted was for them to get their hands on "Solo" over here and who knew what they would do with him, especially after they figured out what he had.

Spying something up again, he swore to himself (something he was doing a lot more often these days) and pressed on the accelerator. He was starting to put some distance between himself and the Preventers but then made a risky move. He jerked the steering wheel and slammed the side of the car into a parked one. With all the speed he had put into the maneuver, he was able to shove the parked car out of its space and right into a telephone pole.

Pulling away from the intentional accident, he watched through the rearview mirror as the pole began leaning then falling over, landing right in the middle of the road. Sadly, it didn't stop Wufei who had just passed under it but at least it put a stop to the rest of the Preventers. A few of them flipping over the obstacle.

Hopefully those guys would be all right.

Wufei was starting to close in again and Duo knew he would be unable to outrun him. It was only a matter of time now and it would be a shame to be caught. Not only would he have to answer about the shit at that base but also the stunts he had been pulling out here.

"How much ammo we have left?" Duo shot at the blond next to him.

Digging through the backpack, the blond wordlessly pulled out a couple more clips.

"Aim for the tires," Duo instructed him. "Shoot at every tire you see except ours. Do not shoot out our tires. Everyone else is free game."

"Affirmative," "Solo" responded as he reloaded.

Duo winced again as Solo began shooting, this time taking out a few other drivers who began swerving as they lost control. A glance in the rearview mirror told Duo that it was slowing down Wufei but the Chinese colonial was not about to let such a mess stop him.

It was too bad that Wufei was not driving in "Solo's" line of fire or else Duo would have emphasized putting out Wufei's tires.

Alright, what to do, what to do. Their diversion would not last long and they only had so many bullets. Wait a minute, Duo recognized this street now. That would mean…okay, they had one more shot at escape here.

"Stop shooting!" he ordered. "I have an idea."

He began easing them faster but not really taking advantage of the lead he had. He had to go the right speed for this or he would fuck it all up. Wufei was catching up now; he needed to wait for what he was going to do so that he timed this just right…

Okay, Wufei was pulling up to his side. Awesome. This just made things easier. Seeing the hood of Wufei's car come into his peripheral, he looked straight ahead, spotting what he needed.

Then he slammed on the brake.

Not expecting that out of him, Wufei flew by, leaving the two of them behind. Spinning the wheel again, Duo cut through traffic and entered into another alley way, almost causing another wreck.

This was going to be tight.

* * *

><p>"Damn it!" Wufei swore as he watched Maxwell's car drive out of sight.<p>

He had almost caught up with him! What was going through that maniac's mind? Didn't he recognize them as help?

"We need to turn around!" Winner exclaimed from his seat, turned around so that he was looking through the rear window.

Seeing another alley coming up, Wufei slowed them down some and made a sharp turn into it, cutting through traffic the same way Maxwell had just done.

The car bounced as it ran over garbage and other items that obstructed their way, Wufei trying to drive as fast as he could but not going too fast. They were entering the back ways again and turning into the large alley up ahead required one to slow down in order to enter without passing through it or endangering yourself.

Making the turn, he found to his surprise that Maxwell's car was parked up ahead, not moving whatsoever. The doors were shut but he couldn't see any movement inside the vehicle from this distance.

Driving closer, he pulled up to the car's front bumper and stopped. No one was in the vehicle, meaning that Maxwell and whoever else was in there with him were probably escaping on foot at this time.

"Look around," he ordered his two partners. "See if you can't pick up a trail. He can't have gone far."

As Barton and Winner did as they were told, Wufei called in their location, demanding for additional back up to help them out. Hanging up a small radio transmitter, he got out to see if he could aid his partners in their endeavor.

"There's nothing," Winner stated. "They bailed, just like you thought."

"Barton?" he asked, looking at the taller agent.

"It looks like Duo tried to back up before abandoning the car," Trowa reported. "Other than that, I can't find any other tracks he left."

"We're so close!" Quatre groaned as he looked up at the sky for a second. "Where'd he go? He couldn't have disappeared!"

None of them thought to check under the car where a manhole was hidden from view. It wouldn't be until after the car was moved from its spot to be impounded that they found out about it as well.

* * *

><p>"This is a big step up. I used to be a street rat and now I'm a sewer rat. I'm really climbing that ladder now," Duo grumbled. Behind him, "Solo" followed with the backpack on, not in the least hampered by the weight.<p>

Freakin' super soldier. By now, Duo was striking at any target to appease his frustration and anger. He was pissed that he had to run from the guys now despite the fact that he was not on the best terms with them. He was pissed that they had a bunch of armed wackos chasing them, most likely trying to get their weapon back. He was pissed that he was hiding in a sewer, trekking down the concrete tunnels and surrounded by so much _shit_. He was pissed off at the moment and yes, everything was a target.

Including himself.

There was just so much shit, both literal and metaphorical, that he felt like screaming and hurting the nearest person. But he was too disciplined to throw a tantrum like that now so he had to settle for just stewing in the middle of the mess he found himself in.

Then, he had to hear it. The question that he least wanted to hear at this point in time. The question that was going to make him lose it just by hearing it.

"What do we do now?" "Solo" asked him.

He screamed. Well, it couldn't really be considered a scream; it was more like a yell yet the pitch was raising by the second. The acoustics of the sewer tunnels only amplified it and let's not get into the echo that resulted once Duo closed his mouth.

Slowly, the reverberations of Duo's aggravated roar decreased until silence settled once more in the sewer. After a moment, it seemed like such a response was not what "Solo" was looking for.

"Was that not an appropriate question?" the blond asked, eyes trained on the braided one.

"More like now is not the time to be asking me anything," Duo growled as his dark blue eyes glared at his compatriot.

"I doubt the people chasing us are going to stop," "Solo" stated. "They will end up finding out where we are, especially if we remain in one place."

"What the hell was I thinking?" Duo bellowed as he planted the palms of his hands on his head, fingers grasping at stray strands of hair. "Why am I here, with you, someone I barely know, hiding from the people who I'm supposed to be working with instead of pissing off? I might have hated it there but at least I had a place to go back to! Now I'm back on the Most Wanted list again, hiding from people who could probably help me, and all for what? You?"

"Solo" was frowning at him now, the most human expression he had had on thus far. Duo paid no attention to it, lost in the sensation of everything he knew starting to fall apart.

It was a legit question. What had he been thinking back there, back in that forest when he had been having a staring contest with this guy? Why had he chosen to not go back to the guys he had fought a war with, saved the world with, and worked with on a near everyday basis? He should have had more loyalty to those guys but here he was making them enemies. And for what? Somebody who just looked like someone who had died a long time ago?

You might as well give yourself up, Maxwell. Time to wake up and smell the coffee. You are in so much shit right now that no amount of excusing or apologizing would help. Things like a downtown chase through Sanc of all places was not something you were given a slap on the wrist for.

He felt like banging his head against the concrete walls and to be honest, that sounded like the best idea he had in years.

So that's what he did.

He managed to bang his head against the wall once but then he was swept up in a bear hug, left to kick his legs wildly like a child as he tried and failed to squirm his way out of the embrace.

"Let go of me! Don't fucking touch me!" he yelled at the blond as he threw his head around, fighting a losing fight against the inhuman strength that "Solo" possessed. It wasn't fucking fair; he had taken this guy down when they had first met and now he was being restrained like this?

"I fear for your wellbeing," "Solo" said. "I do not want you causing yourself self-injury for no logical cause."

"That's all it is to you, isn't it?" Duo spat back. "Logic this! Does not compute that! What the fuck are you, a freaking robot! A fucked up science experiment that's biting me in the ass, that's what the fuck you are!"

"You are acting hysterical," "Solo" grunted.

"Use the fucking contractions you bastard!" Duo howled.

"_Getta hold of yer self, ya brat!_" "Solo" snapped at him.

Automatically, Duo went limp. "Why'd you have to do that?" he complained softly. "Why'd you have to use that voice again? Why do you keep haunting me with it?"

"'_Cause you breakin' down now's gonna get us killed_," "Solo" stated again. "_Calm down 'fore ya hurt yerself._"

"Stop it, please," Duo begged, head bowed as his shoulders began shaking.

"What?" "Solo" asked, blinking at him dumbly.

Ignoring the blond, Duo tried his best to get his emotions under control. "Follow your emotions." Hadn't Heero said something like that? Idiot didn't use them himself so where did he come off telling people that? Emotions were what was preventing him from doing something to preserve himself and the stranger who looked so familiar. He had to get things under control.

He could break down later when he had the chance.

"_Kid?_"

"Stop using that voice already!" Duo snapped, brow furrowing as he blatantly stared straight ahead of them at the darkness that blocked their path.

"Solo" was silent but at least he wasn't using Solo's voice anymore. Honestly, how did this guy not know that he was speaking differently and not remember it? Didn't make any sense.

Finally getting his wits back, Duo took a deep breath with his mouth. Using his nose would have included the foul stench that surrounded them and he did not want to be distracted by that.

"Alright, you asked what we're going to do now," Duo stated, not asking the blond for confirmation. "First thing, we get out of here and lie low. The city's going to be hot so the faster we can get out of here, the better. Next, we need a long term place to hide. Unfortunately, I only planned to use places that could support just me in case shit went bad."

"So what are you thinking of doing?" "Solo" asked quietly yet loud enough for the brunet to hear him.

Duo let his head lean backwards, his face directed towards the tunnel ceiling above them. "Earth's too unpredictable with its weather patterns. We need to go someplace where it's more stable but if we do that, we'll only be enclosing ourselves in a limited amount of space."

"I don't understand where you are taking this," "Solo" stated.

"I don't think this is the best idea but I think our best bet to hide from the government would be in the Colonies," Duo surmised. "It's all urban and those parts that don't have concrete are metal. We could definitely find a place to stay in even if it's not a building. Plus the Preventers don't have that much reach there; the Colonist governments are very sensitive and would howl up a storm if they tried anything too big."

"The Colonies?" "Solo" asked, perplexed.

"They wouldn't expect that move," Duo continued to say to himself, brightening up to the idea. "Sure they'd be watching the air and space ports but sneaking by that security is easy. Shame we had to leave the other pack behind but we can still get some guns up in the Colony itself."

"Is there nothing I can contribute?" "Solo" asked blandly.

"I think we might have a plan," Duo said, the corners of his lips curled upwards in a slight smile. "Gotta do a couple things first before we can go. Let go of me big guy. We have some errands to do."

"Right," "Solo" sighed as he released Duo who immediately began darting forward, leaving the blond to try and keep up with him.


	11. Chapter 11

Author's Note: Another short one but hopefully I clear up some questions a few of you have as well as raise more questions that will cause you to pull your hair out and scream at the computer screen. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Warning: language

Chapter 11

"Another botch up, Commander?"

"Shut your trap, Wallace," Commander Farrell growled. "This is not the time to try my patience."

"Nor is it the time to try mine, Commander," Wallace stated with that clinical tone of his. Farrell could barely believe that the man was human from the way he spoke. "The prototype continues to run wild and your men have been underperforming in retrieving it. I am beginning to wonder if you aren't starting to become a liability."

Farrell picked at his mustache, a habit he had picked up shortly after he had grown it. He only really did that if he was deep in thought or agitated to the point that he would go postal. Care to guess which of the two he was right now?

"You gave me your word this wouldn't get out of hand, remember?" he snapped back at the other man. "You told me that this weapon would not do something like this, that loyalty would be _programmed_ into it. Where's that fucking loyalty, hmm?"

"Not in the prototype since I didn't put that in yet," Wallace replied, not looking at the commander as he kept his eyes trained on the news broadcast. The light from the flat screen reflected off his glasses, making it harder to see those cold yet bright blue eyes. "I perceived that it wasn't necessary at this stage but apparently I've been proven wrong. Do not fret Commander, the next model will definitely have that wired in."

"I can't believe how you can talk about programming a human being like a computer," Farrell grunted.

"We've been over this before; no matter how similar the weapon is to us in appearance, the weapon is not human," Wallace stated. "It may have skin and organs and tissue but it will never have the moral compass that a layperson has. It is a blank slate that we can write all over if we want to. It's that simple."

"Whatever you have to do to sleep better, I'm not liking this project," Farrell said. "I'm helping you violate something, something precious."

"Why do you say that, Commander?" Wallace asked, taking his eyes off the screen to look at him curiously.

"It's a feeling, Wallace, something I don't think you have anymore," Farrell said.

"Regardless of your interpersonal conflict, we need the prototype back if only to upload the data from it," Wallace said, turning back to the screen. "Your men are going to have to pick up the slack or I won't be able to fulfill my end of our deal."

"My men are dying out there!" Farrell snapped, glaring at the white-haired man. "They've been giving their lives for you little fantasy! I don't want to waste anymore lives!"

"Fantasy? This is far from fantasy, Commander," Wallace replied. "I am so close to surpassing my mentor's work. He let himself be blinded by affection for his creation and allowed it to slip through his fingers. What am I saying, he let it go. Willingly. A priceless opportunity for scientific advancement and he falls prey to illogical human emotions."

"I don't care about your wet dreams, Wallace," Farrell scoffed. "I am not letting anymore of my men die for this. Their lives are my responsibility. If you think they'll listen to you, you'd better think again."

"Don't be too hasty, Commander. You're letting your emotions get the better of you," Wallace chastised. "If you are truly concerned about the well-being of your men, I can at least provide an alternative."

"What?" Farrell asked, confused. He barely understood half of the things Wallace said nowadays.

"There still are a few other prototypes," Wallace said casually. "They're nothing like the one that's on the loose but they should be able to weaken it enough for your men to recapture it. It's also an opportunity to provide more data for us to analyze."

"You mean…you've been keeping more of those things alive?" Farrell exclaimed, gaping at the other man. "What haven't you been telling me, Wallace? What else are you hiding?"

"Terminating all our previous failures wouldn't be sound from an economic standpoint," Wallace shrugged. "Those that managed to resist the call of death were kept to a side, mainly used for other experiments. Their endurance and stamina are inhumanly remarkable and with some basic instruction in martial combat, I do believe they will be adequate for this venture."

"You're sick. I don't know what made you like this, but you're sick," Farrell all but shouted at the doctor. "What happened to you? What happened to the kid I used to know and grew up with? What—"

"That's none of your business," Wallace interrupted. "I've given you a chance to spare your men more injury. Will you take it or leave it?"

"I need to go. I need—" Farrell muttered to himself as he left his seat, shaken by the coldness of the doctor.

"Think it over quickly," Wallace ordered. "There's not much time before its trail goes cold."

Farrell said nothing, leaving Wallace to his lonesome. The Commander had said he was going but it wasn't to leave this thing. He was so far deep in it that he wouldn't be able to leave, that is if Wallace would allow him to at this point.

To his horror, he was considering the doctor's offer and no matter how hard he tried, he would not be able to forget about it anytime soon.

What was happening to him?

* * *

><p>An immediate search of the area pulled up nothing. It didn't make sense how Duo could just vanish into thin air in such a short amount of time. He had what, maybe two minutes, three tops, to abandon his car and flee?<p>

No one had seen anyone matching his description either lurking around or fleeing out of any alley. Inspections of the nearby buildings, searching for a possible escape had been looked at and dismissed. In the meantime, the car was inspected to see if any clues had been left behind before finally being towed.

It was only then that someone spotted the manhole that the car had been parked on and evidence had shown that it had been opened up recently.

Already, they had a team sent down there to see if they could pick up Duo's cooling trail but Quatre had no doubt in his mind that Duo was long gone. It was an exercise in futility at this point. The putrid stench would be too much of a distraction for the initial team to handle and they would need some hazmat suits down there to more effectively search.

That was time that would be wasted and by the time an effectively equipped team arrived, Duo would have exited somewhere in the city.

The only thing that Quatre was focusing on now was the question why. Why was Duo running from them? Why had he resisted pulling over and giving himself up? Why was he in that chase in the first place? But most of all: why hadn't he contacted them at all?

They hadn't seen hide nor hair of Duo since that disaster of a mission and when they tried to track him down, their best clue had been a stolen vehicle that was left in the bad part of town.

Sure, there was the theory that perhaps Duo was dodging the men who had been chasing him but did he necessarily think that they too were enemies? There had been the split second when he had obviously seen them, recognized them. And still he ran. Whatever sense he had had at this point had to be thrown out the window because nothing about this was making any sense now.

So now he and his two partners were leaving the scene, all three of them knowing they could do nothing at this point. Throughout the whole investigation, Wufei had been in contact with HQ and Une, reporting what they had seen and what they were doing. After several hours of searching the second abandoned car, Une had called them in.

So now Quatre was in the backseat as Wufei drove more sedately than before, seething as he glared at the road before him. Trowa in the front passenger seat was still quiet but there was a tenseness about him that Quatre could detect. Both of them were having the same thoughts as he himself did and they were drawing up their own questions and conclusions. None of them were looking forward to returning to HQ and Une's office where she was most likely going to lay into them for this.

Streets were cornered off, property was damaged, traffic was horrible, and it was all probably covered by the local news stations. That would mean that some of the higher ups would be demanding an explanation for what had happened here and Une was going to drag everything they knew out of them.

The sight of HQ was very forbidding as it came into sight.

Minutes later, they were in front of Une's office having trekked all the way from across the street since the parking garage had been closed off. The needless walking had put Wufei in an even more foul mood and Trowa had withdrawn more into himself.

Quatre couldn't blame them as he rapped on the door.

"Enter."

Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.

Une didn't look frazzled or upset, Quatre noted as he walked in. If anything, she looked calm; too calm. He didn't like it.

"What have you found out since we last spoke?" Une asked them as Trowa shut the door.

Since neither of his partners were going to speak, Quatre knew the responsibility fell to him. "We've identified a possibly escape route Duo…I mean, Agent Nightmare took. It appears he slipped into the sewers. By now, he could be anywhere."

"That is…unfortunate," Une agreed, her voice not raising an octave.

There was something about the way she said that that perked Quatre's interest.

"Is there something that's come up that we don't know about?" Quatre asked.

Une eyed all three of them, internally debating whether or not she should say anything to them. Did they even deserve to hear what she knew? Those questions were washing all over her face and Quatre could see them as clear as day. There was not good news to found here.

"Our security feed picked up something interesting this morning," Une finally said after an agonizing period of silence. "We've been able to identify the intruder or should I say intruders. A camera in the parking garage located the persons who broke in and accessed the archives. They were looking for the data from your failed mission and managed to access many of the files before they were stopped. One of them was a good hacker and got through our various firewalls."

"What does it mean, Director?" Wufei finally spoke up, asking her to get to the point.

"One of our trespassers happened to be Agent Nightmare himself," Une stated. "From the footage, he also had an accomplice. Right how we are searching data banks for anyone matching the second man's description but so far nothing has come up. However, they did manage to make copies of a few of the files before they left."

Quatre stared at Une in disbelief. Duo had been the one that broke in? Duo had been the one to hack into their networks? Why? What was Duo trying to do?

"A witness was also found in the parking garage," Une continued. "She had been attacked by Nightmare's accomplice and it was discovered that her keys were missing. Since you had told me Nightmare was creating havoc downtown earlier, I have more than probable cause to believe that that was the witness' car that was driven.

"A check on the car should solve the rest," Une finished. "As of now, I am curious as to why Agent Nightmare has infiltrated us and stolen top secret documents. You wouldn't perhaps be able to shed some light on this?"

Quatre glanced at his two partners, Wufei and Trowa him reciprocated his looks. Sighing, he said, "According to what we know, apparently Agent Nightmare was being chased."

"I know he was, I saw the newsfeed," Une said dryly.

"Not by us," Quatre emphasized. "During the chase, we saw unmarked vehicles firing shots at Agent Nightmare and I believe Agent Night was able to incapacitate one of the vehicles."

"We were able to retrieve two other men from another accident that occurred during the chase," Wufei added. "They are currently undergoing medical treatment. Once they've been stabilized, we'll proceed to interrogate them."

"That I know as well but thank you for clarifying how they were taken in," Une said.

"We don't know who they are or why they were chasing Nightmare," Quatre slid back in to the conversation.

"Do you think Nightmare may have been working with them and this was a set up to distract us?" Une asked, voicing a possibility that Quatre had not wanted to consider.

"But why chase and shoot at him?" he asked her. "Why have your own allies shoot at you? To throw us off? It doesn't make that much sense."

"Unless they're trying to throw us off," Une pointed out, using his own words against him.

"We'll find out once the men are stabilized, won't we?" Trowa said.

"Indeed," Une agreed. "However, my concern right now is with our missing agent. It's now obvious to me that he does not intend to return to us anytime soon. What would you suggest I do?"

None of them could refute that. Duo was making it obvious that he wasn't planning on returning. That's what really frustrated Quatre the most and why he was asking all these questions that began with why. He was having trouble getting into Duo's head but then again, he had never been able to get into the brunet's head before either.

And now all this. It was more than enough to give the blond a migraine. He had never had a migraine before but he knew that before all was said and done he would have one.

Une sighed, an action that Quatre hadn't expected from her at this time. Especially since she was in a position to lord over them and blame them for screwing up so much. "You know why I have you all working with the Preventers, correct?"

Oh, Quatre knew. All of them knew. The five Gundam pilots were perhaps the most dangerous people on Earth and in the Colonies. They had instigated a never-ending war that had brought both the Earth and Colonies to near ruin. If they wanted to, they could overthrow the government of the Earth Sphere United Nations if they should wish. They were symbols of rebellion, of anarchy, whether they liked that or not.

It was more than reasonable for Une to want to keep them in sight at all times. If any of them wanted to go wild, it would have far-reaching implications than Quatre cared to admit.

"Of all of you, only one of you resisted the call to become legal agents," Une said. "I am, of course, referring to Nightmare. I had to pull some strings and force him into service, not the first thing I wanted to do. Out of all of you, he has the most motivation to go rogue just as he has done."

That…was something Quatre hadn't known. Duo had been forced to join? He had been under the impression that Duo had done so willingly. Yet it would explain the aloofness, the distance that existed between them and their errant comrade. The refusals to socialize, the isolation, the constant bad moods…

Duo had always been the type of person to resist authority. In fact, Quatre knew quite well how Duo resented being told what to do. It had always been a part of who he was and Quatre had never wondered why that was.

Then something occurred to Quatre. Why was Une mentioning this now? Why hadn't she told him or the others about it before? She was leading them in a direction Quatre wasn't sure he wanted to go.

"The failed mission has been bringing to light a lot of things that are hard for me to ignore," Une stated as her posture changed. Instead of being more receptive, her stance was declaring that she had made a decision about something and she was about to enlighten them as to what that was. "The fact that Agent Nightmare has avoided contact, snuck into the city and infiltrated Preventers Headquarters, hacked into our system and copied files he had no business to copy, and fled through downtown Sanc leaving wonton property damage in his wake, it has left me no other choice."

She leaned closer to them and Quatre found himself leaning towards her, a morbid curiosity forcing him to hear her out.

"I am going to have to declare that Duo Maxwell has gone AWOL," Une said.

And there it was.

"AWOL?" Wufei exclaimed, aghast.

"I would like to believe there is some plausible reason for all this but I have found none whatsoever," Une stated. "As of this moment, I want you all to track down and arrest Duo Maxwell."

"What about charges?" Trowa asked solemnly.

"As of this time, I would prefer to keeps those to myself," Une explained. "As much as I trust you, I do not want any loyalty you may have towards Maxwell to interfere with your duties. You will bring him in and I'll deal with the rest."

"Are you sure we're qualified for this?" Wufei asked softly, slightly surprising Quatre that it was not him who was asking that. "We haven't been able to locate or apprehend him before this. What makes you think we'll be any more successful this time?"

"I will be putting an expert in charge of this," Une told them, reaching a hand out to buzz her intercom. Not waiting for an answer, she sat back as she clasped her hands in front of her just as her door opened.

The three pilots looked away from the Preventers director towards the new entrant.

"Agent Trump reporting for duty," Heero Yuy stated as cold, Prussian blue eyes returned their gazes dispassionately.

* * *

><p>Une had pulled Yuy off of the Vice Foreign Minister's security detail? Wufei knew that this wouldn't have been done unless things were incredibly dire.<p>

Still, he had to wonder as they brought Yuy up to speed just what made him an expert? Did Yuy know something about Maxwell they didn't?

"So what is our first move?" Barton asked he crossed his arms, leaning his posterior against the conference table. Une had reserved for them a conference room in which everything that involved hunting Maxwell down would be sent and administered. No cubicles or offices for them, it seemed.

"Do we try to see if we can pick up Duo's trail?" Winner asked.

"Negative," Yuy answered. "At this point, trying to pick up Duo's trail would not be of any help. Right now, he might not be in the city anymore."

"So then what do we do?" Barton asked, frowning slightly.

"We make contact with any and all contacts Duo has," Yuy stated. "Howard, Hilde Schbeiker, anyone of whom he is an acquaintance with. Instead of trying to follow his trail, we will try to preempt him by getting those close to him to keep us informed. There is no doubt in my mind that he will try to contact one or any of them. It will be through them that we will close in on him."

"What makes you so sure that he will try to contact anyone?" Wufei asked, wondering where Yuy was coming up with that kind of logic. "Wouldn't it be better for him not to contact anyone? It's a risk that could expose him."

"From what I know of Duo, and I know a lot about him, he needs socialization," Yuy said, turning his hard gaze on him. Wufei shifted, slightly uncomfortable. He would not admit that he was squirming. "Isolation would be tantamount to a slow execution for him."

"I don't think that's…accurate, Heero," Winner said, backing away slightly from Yuy's intense glance.

"Why do you say that?" Yuy asked. Even Wufei couldn't hold back the wince at that bland voice.

"For the past two years, Duo has been willingly isolating himself," Barton piped in. "He has been refusing anything that has him in the company of others. We've been making efforts to get him to socialize with us but each invitation has been rebuffed or flat-out refused."

Yuy made eye contact with Barton's singular, visible eye, as if demanding if Barton was disagreeing with him. Unexpectedly, Yuy turned towards him and asked, "Is this true?"

"Absolutely," Wufei answered. "He will interact with us professionally but other than that, he refuses to spend time with us."

"Unexpected," Yuy murmured. "However, I don't expect for it to completely change him. I am told he did not want to work with the Preventers full time so that probably him venting. Now that he has been found out to be actively eluding us, he will fall back to what he knows and that includes people that he trusts."

"But most of them are in Space or the Colonies," Winner pointed out.

"The Sweepers," Yuy agreed. "That is a group that is extremely close-knit. They would be of little to no help in finding Duo. That will mean we will have to focus more on Hilde Schbeiker for the time being. We'll visit her, see how the relationship between her and Duo is and find out when he last contacted her. Regardless of her answers, we will set up a stake out and keep a close eye on her."

"And how long will that last?" Wufei asked skeptically. "Wouldn't her answers be satisfactory?"

"If he has contacted her, he's probably told her to lie already," Yuy replied. "If he hasn't, she'll figure out we're going to her for information and she will more than likely provide false information. She has more loyalty towards him than us. Before I forget, get a hold of her phone records; we'll use them to cross reference what she tells us."

"What makes you so sure that he'll contact anyone?" Barton asked, a distaste in his tone. "He has an accomplice; what need will he have to contact anyone if he has to talk with someone like you think he will?"

"I know how he works," Yuy stated. "He will contact someone. The accomplice is an outlier, not important. One of the things Duo is good at is counter intelligence. That and eluding authorities. He comes from the L2 Cluster and the citizens there are the masters at breaking the law and escaping punishment. He survived there for who knows how long and that will be where he goes. His motto, the same one he used to throw around, is that he runs and hides. Where better to hide than some place he knows? And this girl lives in that cluster. I know he will contact her at some point and we have to be ready for when that happens."

"Well, you're the boss Heero," Winner sighed. "If we look into Hilde, we look into Hilde. Come on guys, arguing will get us nowhere."

Both Winner and Barton left, probably to either compose themselves or start out with the tasks Yuy had slated for them. That just left Wufei alone with Yuy who turned his gaze to him. Wufei traded him look for look, determined not to show any weakness. He did not like being ordered around, particularly for no good reason. Someone had to be strong around here and not let their emotions cloud their judgments.

It would have to be left to him but he wouldn't be alone in the endeavor. He had ample company with Yuy in this department.

"Wufei," Yuy spoke. "I feel as if I have dissention in the ranks."

"We are hunting one of our own," Wufei stated. "It stands to reason that we would like to give the benefit of the doubt despite the mounting evidence to the contrary. However, if it comes to the point someone has to pull the trigger, I am sure that even Winner would do so no matter how much he would dislike it."

"That's good to hear but I'm going to need them to prove that to me," Yuy stated. "Regardless of what they think, Duo always has a reason for what he does. There is always something. We find out what that reason is, then we'll know everything we need to bring him in.

"Mark my words."


	12. Chapter 12

Author's Note: Put a few references to modern times, which I know will annoy a certain reviewer of my. It was how I had written to chapter before they informed of this but I made a few corrections that could probably make these references more tolerable. Hopefully. Still, I can't make up the name of some fictional people that just happen to be based off these modern day figures because how the hell would you guys know what I'm comparing? I don't want to spend a whole paragraph explaining who a few people are just to make one sentence make sense. Would definitely add to the word count, though.

My spiel over with, enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Warning: language

Chapter 12

Here's a riddle for you. How do you get past heightened security while trying to make your way through a space port when you were a wanted fugitive?

The answer is simple: look like somebody else.

How do you do that? Well, in this case it involved a change of clothing, a lot of hair dye, and a set of high heels. Why women would willingly subject themselves to wearing these things was a mystery on par with that classic one, what do women want?

Duo would let you know, vocally if he could, that he despised cross-dressing. He had nothing against people who enjoyed it, encouraged them even, but when he himself was forced to disguise himself as a member of the opposite sex, it made him a little cranky. Just because he willingly grew his hair out did not mean that he was into the same things women liked.

By now, Duo knew the Preventers were searching for him as well as those guys who were mostly likely associated with that base from a while back. Both of them were going to be looking for two guys, one blond and the other brunet, one tall and the other shorter than the first, but ultimately it came back to them looking for a couple guys.

What they weren't looking for was a newly-wed couple who were heading up to the Colonies where they had to stop over in the L2 Cluster so they could reach their other shuttle. Sounds like something people had to do back when planes had the monopoly over fast travel but when you thought about it, space was a big place. It was real easy to get lost in so if you had a few pilots who knew how to get from one Colony to the other without messing up, you made sure they specialized in travel between certain Colonies.

For example, you'd have pilots who could shuttle you over to the L4 sector Colonies from L1 easy but would have trouble going to the L3 sector Colonies. Meant a lot of shuttle pilots were out there and economically it sounded ridiculous. Why not have pilots who could get you to any Colony in any sector? The answer to that would be labor unions. End of story.

So there they were, arriving into the XJ9495 Colony space port, one of the Colonies that made up the L2 Cluster. Theirs would be the last shuttle for the "day" and their flight would be the first to leave in the "morning" so they would have to find a place to stay in the meantime. Too bad they weren't going to make that second flight but no one would notice.

So many people crawled over this place, what were two more faceless people in the masses?

"Oh honey do you smell that—" pause for a deep breath here "—rust and decay? In the air?" a high falsetto voice asked. "You know I've never been to a space colony before! I wonder what L4 will be like?"

Duo internally winced at the act he was having to perform. His vocal cords were killing him and he had been at this for quite a few hours already. Still, the show had to go on. You'd be surprised how noisy you could be, even if everyone was looking for you, and no one would look at you twice.

"It would be nicer, I guess?" Oh, real good acting if you liked monotones. And the Oscar goes to "Solo" over there for his emotionally stunted husband. Duo had coached him better than this and he still sounded like he was reading off the cue cards!

No really, Duo had used cue cards to train this guy. He sounded like if that twentieth century physicist Stephen Hawking tried to audition for a twentieth century Robin Williams role. It was that bad. Which was worse, "Solo's" "acting" or the fact Duo knew who a pair of twentieth century icons were, take your pick.

"Can you believe they're making us get our bags when we're just going to have to give them right back?" he complained with his interpretation of an annoyed woman about to go menstrual.

"No…honey," "Solo" answered, not bothering to do anything with his voice.

Duo winced as he took another unsteady step, the high heels he was wearing throwing off his balance. He supposed he was lucky that the dress he had forced himself to wear had a long. floral-patterned skirt. You could barely see the tips of his feet so that had to count for something.

"Aw, muster up some enthusiasm," he chided light-heartedly. "Oh, I know, I know, you just want to get where we're going first. You're so pragmatic."

"Yes…honey."

The baggage claim was nearly deserted except for the few who had been on their flight. Some were getting off here mainly because this was their stop while others we're going to see if they couldn't get on another shuttle line, maybe find an earlier shuttle out of here.

To complete their disguise, Duo had managed to get his hands on a bulky, square suitcase that had an awful pattern decorating it. Typical for a tourist or someone who had no taste in fashion. Guess which one Duo was.

"Solo" got a few stares as he effortlessly picked up their luggage with a single hand, Duo immediately excusing him by telling everyone in earshot that his "husband" was working out. Apparently put off by his cheeriness so late in the "night," no one gave them any lip and soon the pair was strolling out, Duo's dyed blond hair unbraided and swishing behind them like a curtain.

"There should be a bus shuttle around here," Duo mused to his taller companion who was squinting slightly into the glasses that were perched on his nose. In an even softer voice so that no one could hear him, he added, "It'd be bad for business if people were mugged in front of the shuttle port."

"Is that it?" "Solo" asked as he directed their attention to a large, moving contraption that was heading in their direction.

"Yeah, that should be it," Duo confirmed as he noted the large, tinted windows. "Shitty condition for a bus. Must not have a lot of cash to get a better one. Get back into character."

Duo knew the purpose for this; since there had been enough complaints of travelers being robbed as soon as they set foot on the Colony, the Colony government had caved in to the lobbying of the tourism industry. So, a system of buses were mandated to ship travelers to nearby shuttle hotels, a spin-off of old fashioned airport hotels, so that there would be no muggings within five hundred feet of the shuttle port. Beyond that, people were on their own.

The shuttle bus came to a stop near them, forcing the pair to walk to its open doors.

"Wow, this looks so military," Duo commented in his fake falsetto. Oh yes, forgot to mention these buses were built like antique tanks. Three inches of solid steel and bulletproof glass would protect them from any stray bullets or the occasional IED. Weren't common, that last one, but it happened maybe once every three years. And because of all the news coverage, it made people even more panicked and demanding more unreasonable security.

To think this was actually one of the better Colonies in the L2 Cluster.

"Well, ma'am, we can't risk letting folk like you get hurt," the shuttle driver told him, giving him a look over. Oh, Duo recognized that look. The driver was probably thinking about flirting with him or something. Probably as straight as an arrow too. Wouldn't he be surprised at what he might find?

"See? I told you the people here were concerned for our safety?" Duo pretended to admonish "Solo" who placed their one piece of luggage on a bench seat.

"You're pretty chipper, aren't you?" the driver asked as he closed the shuttle doors.

"I always like to look on the bright side of life," Duo replied, adding a little giggle.

"With your boyfriend to sightsee?" the driver asked as he pulled the shuttle away from the curb, taking them to their next destination.

"Honeymoon!" Duo said loudly.

"Lucky," the driver commented, directing it more towards "Solo" than Duo.

When "Solo" said nothing immediately, Duo elbowed him. "I am," "Solo" said a little stiffly.

"Don't mind him, he's a little tired," Duo piped up. "Jetlag."

"Gets us all, little lady," the driver agreed.

Duo clenched his teeth at that, doing his best not to ball his hands into fists. And that was the main reason he hated cross-dressing. He hated the hits his masculinity would take, even as unintentional as they were.

* * *

><p>Once upon a time, about a few centuries or so, there had been a name for shuttle hotels. They were used to be called "Hiltons," or so Duo had been told. According to the story he heard, these "Hiltons" were owned by a family appropriately named the Hiltons. After the first generation made it a multi-million dollar business, the following generations squandered it until they had to declare bankruptcy. Twice. Ultimately, they sold it and the business itself was torn apart as smaller businesses usurped each and every building.<p>

And that was the romantic version of the story.

Now, the hotel they were being dropped off at never bore the Hilton name but at least it was said to be as big as one. Truly it was a shame that the place could barely fill up the first floor while the rest went to waste.

After leaving their driver with a good night, Duo led them in and sometime later, the two had arrived at their room. As soon as the door was shut behind them, Duo's ever present smile dropped as he began undressing. Gone was the perky housewife to be and left was the disgruntled ex-Gundam pilot and wanted fugitive.

"I swear, if I never have to wear these damn things again, it'll be too soon!" Duo declared as he practically tore off his high heels. "Solo" with his dyed black hair stayed back, watching without comment.

With the dress removed, Duo was now left in only a white undershirt and boxers, a set of fake breasts that were made of two hot water bottles and a strap hanging from his neck. Just thinking about them took his mind off his aching feet and turned it towards his aching neck. He was such a happy camper, wasn't he?

"What now?" "Solo" asked quietly as he remained standing.

"We head out tomorrow, catch a lift on one of the private shuttle lines," Duo said as he started making his way to the bathroom. "Now that we're in the cluster, we don't have to worry about the big shuttle lines anymore."

"And where exactly are we going?" "Solo" asked.

Duo paused as he gathered his thoughts. "We'll be meeting an old friend of mine," he said finally. "Won't be staying at their place but we need some intel on what's going on on the Colony. Been too fucking removed from this place, I swear."

"And we do what in the meantime?"

"Rest in a nice bed," Duo answered. "It'll probably be the last one in a good while. I'm gonna soak first then hit the hay. You…do whatever you feel like doing."

He closed the door behind him, leaving "Solo" to his lonesome.

* * *

><p>Aaaahhhh, he had timed it just right. Water schedules were tight in the Cluster as L2 as a whole had little to spare. The Cluster got the same amount as the other sectors did but about sixty percent of it was syphoned off by those in charge or held the most wealth around here. That left forty percent for everyone else so it was scheduling for them.<p>

Bathing was a luxury around these parts, bathing in hot water even more so. Duo had become so used to being able to take a hot shower or bath whenever things got so stressful and he was even more used to doing so whenever he wanted. Earth had spoiled him and now this was probably going to be the last one he would have in who knows how long.

Well, it just meant he was going to have to enjoy it while he could. He sighed as he sank lower into the water, having to bend his knees so that he could fit more of himself in the tub. His dyed hair formed a blond shade over the water and all around him, the ends of hairs like tendrils moving slightly with every subtle movement he made.

The heat was soothing, the warmth hugging his body as water lapped at the sides of the tub. It was serene, peaceful, and helped Duo to clear his head. The more calm he became, the easier it was to reflect on everything and start thinking about what his next move would be.

It had taken a couple days for him to gather the necessary things that were needed after their escape into the sewers. Retailers were the best to filch things from as they had so much inventory that anything small could go missing without raising suspicions. The trick was sneaking into the place and then taking only the absolute minimum of what was needed.

Hair dye, spare clothing, some cosmetic accessories, and most of all the ugly-ass suitcase. Most of the stuff was just to create the illusion that the two of them were indeed a couple out on a trip. It was details like that that shuttle port security would be looking for and if they were missing, well, it would attract unwanted attention.

He still couldn't believe he had put on that damn dress. He was a guy, damn it! Just because he had long hair didn't mean that he enjoyed doing that. Some people did and he had nothing against them. It was their choice. But it wasn't his. Yet the Preventers would not be looking for a male and female couple so a sacrifice had to be made. All he knew is that this had all be worth it or else he was going to kill someone.

That someone was turning out to be "Solo" more and more.

Eh, maybe he shouldn't be too hard on the guy. It wasn't really his fault was it? Everything Duo had done had been his own decisions so he had no one else to blame but himself. He had the choice to take "Solo" back with him to the Preventers, even had the choice to ditch him back in that forest.

He wouldn't have done that last one, though. He knew he'd have a bad taste in his mouth just _thinking_ about it. In fact, thinking about it now was giving him a bad taste.

Well, no use musing about it now. What was past was past. He had to move forward on the path he had chosen and he knew damn well that "Solo" would follow after him wherever he went. Hopefully the guy wouldn't regret it.

All that mattered now was what he…they were to do now.

There were still those papers he had printed back at the Preventers' archives. Hadn't taken a look at them yet but he had been busy hiding from the authorities and not getting arrested. He hated getting arrested. He had been arrested one too many times to want to go through it again.

They would be somewhere "safe" soon enough. Then he could take a look at those papers. A real good look. Maybe it would help piece together some missing pieces in this fucked up puzzle.

But still, information would be needed. Staying on a Colony in the L2 Cluster required knowing everything about what was going on. Lack of information could mean you ending up face first in a gutter, bleeding your life out. Duo wouldn't be able to figure out what was going on with "Solo" if he was dead and that would help no one.

That meant he was going to have to contact people on the Colony that he and "Solo" would be hiding out on. That meant out of all of the Colonies in the Cluster they could stay in, he had to know people there already so their selection of Colonies was pretty damn small. In fact, there was only about two Colonies in the L2 Cluster that he knew people on. One of those was one he swore never to set foot on again for personal reasons. The other…

Well, that was the Colony that Hilde lived on.

The last thing Duo wanted was to get Hilde involved in this. The girl did not deserve to have whatever peaceful niche she had managed to carve out for herself to be torn apart just because of some idiot with a braid making a snap decision.

Of course, because of his newly minted fugitive status, the Preventers were probably at her place already, trying to see if they could coerce her to tell them where he was. It wasn't going to get them anywhere because she didn't know where he was…but that would be changing soon enough. What were the odds they were going to keep an eye on her even after investigating her? Well, whatever it was he wasn't about to take the chance that they would leave her alone on goodwill.

He would have to contact her discretely and in a way that no one watching her would figure out that he had spoken with her. But how?

A very tricky question but he had maybe a day to figure something out. Well, to be honest, less than a day, maybe only a few hours. It was best to have a plan already made before he left this hotel room but even the bath wasn't helping to clear his head enough to come up with anything.

Would a few hours of sleep help? Was some real rest going to help him come up with some fresh ideas that would help them to remain hidden from all the eyes that were searching for them?

It was the only thing he could think of to do right so it better damn work.

With a groan, he pushed himself out of the water, his water-logged hair weighing him down and making the action just that much harder. Didn't help that his muscles were relaxed enough that he wasn't at full strength. Best to suck it up.

Once he was sitting up in an upright position, he leaned forward and unplugged the drain, water immediately rushing into the opening. From there, he got up onto his feet, taking care to maintain his balance. Reaching a hand out, he grabbed the shower curtain and pulled on it to surround the tub.

This next part was going to be messy.

Grabbing a fistful of hair, he began to roll it, twisting strands around on themselves until it looked like he has holding a thick rope. Then with a sudden twist, he began wringing the water out of his long locks, being careful to not pull to hard. The roots of his hair were only pulling slightly but as anyone with hair could tell you, getting your hair pulled hurt.

However, he wanted to dry his hair faster and with long hair, water would hide in the strands and make the process longer. Trust him, he knew what he was doing as he began wringing a new bunch of twisted hair. Thinking about it, grabbing that brush back on Earth on a whim would be a Godsend. He was going to have to comb this damn thing before braiding it again.

By the time he was done getting the water out of his hair, the tub had drained completely though the porcelain remained slick. Lazily, he pulled the shower curtain back and stepped out, snatching up a towel and wrapping it around his lower half. Pausing for a moment, he chewed on his lip as he considered whether or not to use the other towel. Would "Solo" want to come in and clean up as well? That had been a question that periodically popped up in his head, what kind of hygiene the blond had.

Deciding to say fuck it and figure something out later, he snatched up the last remaining towel and used it to scrub at his wet hair. It was easier to do where the hair connected with his head but midway down it was a bit trickier. He managed, though, like he usually did.

Who knew how long he had been in this tiled room? Was "Solo" asleep by now? Those questions would soon be answered as he left the bathroom, his hair trailing after him.

He found "Solo" was in fact still up, sitting on the end of one of the beds and just staring at the wall. The glasses were being fiddled with by his hands, said hands resting in his lap. Duo raised an eyebrow at the sight but made no comment about it. Instead, he headed for their suitcase and opened it up, searching for the toiletries that he had put in there to further fuel their illusion.

Ah, there it was, the hairbrush. He pulled out the hair instrument and took a seat, putting the bead-end thistles of the brush into his hair and pulling downwards. This was a familiar activity and one where he could let his mind blank as his body took over in the repeated action. It was automated, something you could ignore like when you took a shower or brushed your teeth. If you did it every day or enough times, you'd end up blanking out.

But since this was hair, he'd break out of that blankness as a tangle was snared by the brush. He would have to work it out before going back to those easy glides.

"Why are you doing that?"

If anything snapped him out of the unconscious trance, it was that question being spoken out loud. Duo found himself blinking stupidly as he was reminded that "Solo" was still in the room only now he was staring at him.

Despite how girly it sounded, Duo replied, "Fixing my hair."

"Why?" "Solo" asked.

"Long hair requires maintenance," he answered. "If you don't take care of it, you wind up finding the weirdest things in it. It's hygiene."

"Why not cut it?"

Duo stopped his brushing altogether, frozen in place. He searched for a reasonable answer, one that would satisfy this guy but when he came down to it, he didn't know what answer he could give.

"It's personal. Really, really personal," he said quietly.

"You wish not to speak about it?" "Solo" asked.

"Very," Duo agreed. "I'd appreciate it if you dropped it."

"Drop what?"

A groan. "The topic."

"Oh."

Ah, there was the silence again. However, Duo didn't resume his grooming right away. Instead, he stared off into space for a moment, taking time to put away some unwanted memories before he took up the brush again.

"Is it difficult?"

"What is?" Duo asked, turning his attention back to the other.

"What you're doing," "Solo" gestured with an arm. "Your hair maintenance."

"Takes a while to get the hang of it," Duo shrugged, not stopping with the combing.

"Could I try?"

Once again, Duo found himself stopping. Could he…? The answer had to be no but when he looked into those green eyes and saw genuine curiosity, it made him pause for a second. "Solo" really didn't know how much importance Duo put into his braid. He didn't know anything about it, why he grew his hair out when it was a big hindrance when you were a soldier. Entirely unpractical to have yet he still grew it.

He gripped the hairbrush handle tightly, debating whether or not he should risk letting a person he knew who could tear his head off with a wrong move. Yet, he remembered how gentle those large hands could be, the prime example being when he helped patched him up.

A moment more of thought and Duo recalled that he liked to live dangerously. He also remembered that even living dangerously, he only went to a certain point.

Finally, he sighed and said, "Get over here," patting the spot right next to him.

The dark-dyed blond left his seat and found a new one right beside him, right where Duo had signaled him to plop down. Handing the brush to him, Duo turned his back towards the natural blond and said, "Be gentle and don't try to rush. Make sure that the brush goes into the hair…yes, like that. And go down. Down 'Solo'—not that fast! That's better… Hold up, that's a tangle. Don't force it! Just…okay, a little bit more force than that. Work it a bit. Don't fight too hard…"

The coaching went on for a few minutes, Duo having to take over periodically but ultimately, the tangles were combed out and now Duo was just relaxing. "Solo" continued to brush, not knowing that he could have stopped a while ago. That was another thing about long hair. Once all the tangles were gone, it became a bit of a pleasurable activity. Just the light pulling, how the hair follicles pulled at his scalp, it was reminiscent of a massage. Not an actual massage, mind you, but close enough.

Now, Duo was going to admit this right now. "Solo" wasn't the best at this. In fact, he was very poor at it but it was something that could be remedied with time and practice. Lots of practice. There was only one way to go and that was up. Personally, Duo blamed that damn military training. Soft, gentle, merciful, those words were not part of the vocabulary there.

Even as sloppy as "Solo" was, it was still better than nothing and plus, Duo wasn't having to maneuver his hands to get every last strand of hair. His mane was too thick to just throw it all over a shoulder and splitting it into two was really pushing it. It was better to have someone else do it because they could get up to the top of his head with ease.

Noting how late it was getting, Duo knew that if either of them were to get some rest, they had to get it now.

* * *

><p>Quatre knew it would fall to him to do this but according to Heero, he was a natural people person. People trusted him and would speak with him for hours on end. It was because of this that Heero assigned him the role of interviewing Hilde.<p>

Interviewing was just a fancy way of saying interrogating but this was a different time and place and some people broke down at the very word interrogate. You had to be more sensitive nowadays.

It was a big waste of time if you asked him.

Why not call it what it is? Oh screw it, why was he wasting time thinking about it? It was best not to think about it and just do what he was supposed to do. All he had to do was talk with Hilde, see what she knew, and go on from there.

He got out of the Preventer-issued vehicle and faced the large scrapyard was the current work and place of residence of Hilde Schbeiker. He could see the mounds of scraps of metal and various junk over the walls that encircled the place. A large gate served as the entrance to the yard and Quatre noted that two eighteen wheelers could drive through it simultaneously with ease.

Well, he had called earlier so he knew the proprietress was expecting him. All he had to do was buzz in on the intercom and he would be let in. Eyeing the gate, he saw that it looked like it was made of reinforced steel. Did Hilde have security problems? He knew that the L2 Cluster wasn't the safest of Colonies to live or be on but was it this bad?

He'd figure it out all later; he had a job to do.

He held the button as he buzzed in. According to Hilde's instructions, he had to hold it for about five seconds, probably another security measure.

"_Hey Quatre! Hold on a sec!_" Hilde's voice spoke from the com. As soon as Hilde fell silent, the gate began to move slowly, sliding to a side as it opened. Quatre didn't wait for it to open fully, passing through the entrance once he had enough space to get his car through. Hilde was probably watching because only a few seconds after he had drove through, the gate began closing, not even waiting to open completely.

Quatre spotted what he guessed was the main office and parked close to it. A few minutes later, he was inside and was being greeted by an enthusiastic young woman whose blue eyes were glittering with joy at seeing an old friend.

"Quatre! It's been so long!" she exclaimed as she shook his hand before pulling him into a big hug. "Wow, how ya doing? Last time I saw you, wow, it was after that fight with White Fang! You were recovering from a sword wound, weren't you?"

Oh. Yeah. That was not something he remembered fondly. The time in the hospital, not the moment he got the wound. Sure, Dorothy Catalonia stabbed him in the side with a rapier but that hadn't been the worst part. The worst part had been when Duo had come into his room every day, teasing him about getting "pricked by a girl." Okay, so the rapier hadn't gone completely through him but it wasn't a damn prick.

Ehhhh, that's what he missed about Duo. The guy would aggravate you but he only did that to people he liked. The teasing was always good hearted and well-intentioned and could get you out of the most depressive slumps you'd find yourself in.

It made him wonder how it all happened, how Duo distanced himself from them all. Une had given a reason but why hadn't Duo just told him or the others that he hated it? They could have worked something out if he had just spoken up.

"I'm better now," Quatre said, giving her a warm smile. "Five years is enough time for a wound like that heal."

"So what brings you all the way here?" Hilde asked as she led him back to a desk. She slid a chair out for him to sit in while she reclaimed the one she usually used for work. "I was surprised to hear from you."

She had a point. He hadn't talked with her since before Mariemaia's attempt coup. It made him a bit guilty but he had been…busy. With a lot of…stuff. Preventers stuff.

But he had a job to do. This wasn't a social call.

"Well, I wanted to know if you've heard from Duo recently," Quatre told her.

"Not in a few weeks, why?" Hilde asked. Quatre thought he detected something else in her voice, something hidden within that friendly tone of hers. Maybe he caught her by surprise but a few more questions might clear it up.

"Duo has…" How to say this in a noncontroversial way? "…he's been out of communication. We had a mission recently—"

"He's not hurt, is he?" Hilde interrupted, leaning forward in concern.

"That's just it, we don't know that," Quatre told her, also leaning in. "He's been operating under silence and hasn't made any contact with us."

"So…why are you coming to me?" Hilde asked, frowning.

"I wanted to know if you've heard from him in the past few days," Quatre said.

"I haven't," she answered. "If he did, I would have passed on any message he left. Is there something else you're leaving out?"

A shrewd mind, that. She was catching on and Quatre had to decide how much he had to tell her. Heero had given explicit instructions that he couldn't give her anything specific. Telling her that Duo was a wanted fugitive definitely fell under that.

"Well, I can't tell you what the mission was about," he said, scrambling to try and figure something out. Yet, as he spoke, he made it sound like he wasn't trying to hide anything, speaking normally and trying to express concern their mutual friend. At least, Quatre hoped he was still a mutual friend. "That's something that's classified for the time being. However, we do have reason to believe that he has something in his possession, something important."

"How important?" Hilde asked.

"It could send some people to prison," Quatre said. Okay, that was the closest he got to a lie. Or maybe it would be a flat-out lie. Only time would tell on that one. "However, we do have evidence that these people are also searching for Duo. It's very time-constrained and the sooner we find Duo, the sooner we can protect him."

"So he's in danger, huh?" Hilde asked and once again Quatre heard that "something else" from before. Getting another sample of it, he was getting the impression that Hilde didn't like something. No, "didn't like" wasn't enough. Detested seemed more in the ballpark.

"In our positions, putting ourselves in danger is part of our job descriptions," Quatre said. "We may not like it—"

"So what makes you think Duo likes it?" Hilde cut in.

"Huh?" Quatre blinked at her, caught off guard.

"I never liked it that Duo's working full time for the Preventers," Hilde grounded out. Okay, now he knew what it was he had heard earlier. It was hidden steel in that friendly tone. "I still remember the day he called me up to tell me about it. You're lucky Duo knows how to talk me down because I was ready to do something drastic. I hate not being able to see him on a regular basis. Vid calls are not enough. I haven't been next to him in two years, Quatre. Why is that?"

It looked like they had a hostile here. Much to his surprise, Hilde didn't seem to be a fan of the Preventers. The reason why was obvious: they took Duo away from her.

"I don't know what you aren't telling me and I'm sure you'll do your best not to tell me," Hilde stated. "So I'll cut to the chase. If Duo ever calls, I wouldn't tell you. Not unless he told me to contact you. I'll respect his wishes over yours any time of the week. Now if that's all, I'd like for you to leave the premises."

"I'm sorry Hilde," Quatre said. "I'm…I'm not just here on Preventers' business. Duo is my friend too and I want to know that he's okay."

"You've been doing a good job," Hilde scoffed.

"I've been trying Hilde," Quatre said, frowning at her. He was human and he would only take so much verbal abuse before he fought back. "Duo has refused to have anything to do with us. Do you think I like watching one of my friends give me the cold shoulder and isolate himself?"

"Duo doesn't like you," Hilde said, stopping him short. "He knows about your part-time status. You know, he asked why the same courtesy wasn't extended towards him. He's told me a lot of things, like how he feels about all of it. I'm not going to say anymore because he wouldn't like me fighting his battles."

"Look, if you have a change of mind," he said, pulling out a card, "call this number, okay? No matter what's going on between us, I still consider Duo to be a valuable friend. Just…just help me bring him home. I want to bring him home Hilde."

"I guess it all depends on which home you're talking about," Hilde said softly as she turned away.

* * *

><p>That had…turned out well, hadn't it? Oh, who the hell was he kidding?<p>

As the gate closed behind him, Quatre took out his phone to make a call. It could be safely said that Hilde was not going to be a willing ally. If anything, if they forced her into anything, she would do her best to obstruct them.

Naturally, Heero had a plan if this turned out to be the case. They would have operatives around, ready to infiltrate Hilde's work space and her home, bugging it so that they could keep track of all communications she had. This would all be done, naturally, when she wasn't around.

Quatre didn't like it but what other choice did they have? If Hilde wasn't going to help and in fact go out of her way to impede them, it didn't leave them with a lot else to do.

He thought that Duo wasn't dumb enough to go contact Hilde or even Howard. Duo knew of their procedures and knew that this is what they would be doing. Since he wanted to stay hidden for some unknown reason, Hilde and everyone he knew would be the last people he would contact. All and all, this could just be a useless exercise and what would happen if nothing came of this.

Heero was the type of person who didn't give a care about laws and would violate them without a second's hesitation. Yet, if he didn't do that, then he wouldn't be Heero. He was a guy who believed that the ends justified the means and if bugging Hilde's home and work meant bringing Duo in quicker, then that's what Heero was going to do.

There was a reason why he was called Agent Trump. He was their trump card after all.

"Mirage reporting in," he said into his phone. "Hilde has confirmed that she won't be cooperative."

"_We have agents prepared for a stake out,"_ Heero answered him. _"They're in place and ready for activation."_

"Roger," Quatre said, knowing that he would receive information on where the task force would be operating. He'd joined them once he knew where they were.

"_One last thing, Mirage,"_ Heero said. _"We have reason to believe that Duo may be on this Colony. We got a lucky break and found a potential lead. There was a couple seen getting off a shuttle last night and further probing informed us that they claimed to be on a honeymoon."_

"And?" Quatre asked, wondering where this was going.

"_They only had one suitcase between them,"_ Heero informed him. _"What couple on their honeymoon has only one suitcase? We're looking into where they purchased their tickets but I believe that Duo may have hacked into the system and forged two tickets. We should have more information in the next hour."_

"Understood," Quatre said, ending the call. As he put his phone down, he sighed and whispered to himself, "Damn it Duo."


	13. Chapter 13

Author's Note: It's not often that I use Hilde as a character in a story. To be honest, when I rewatched the show a few years ago, I saw her as a bland character. There really wasn't much, to my eyes, that could be worked with. Nevertheless, after writing my first story for the fandom back in 2007, this is perhaps the first time I've really focused on doing anything with her, the small role in The Maxwell Prodigy notwithstanding. That was AU and this, to a degree, isn't. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Warning: language

Chapter 13

Hilde was easygoing by nature, able to take whatever life threw at her and make something out of it. She could also be stubborn and when she believed in something, convincing her otherwise was nigh on impossible. She knew what she wanted, what she believed in, but even she could change given the right circumstances.

Once she had been a junior officer who actively recruited for OZ. Dedicated had been a word to describe her and she took pleasure in convincing others close to her age to join with her to support OZ's cause. Then she met a boy in black wearing sunglasses and everything from there was thrown out the window.

She had no regret letting him go, destroying any chance that OZ would keep her around.

And when that boy in black showed up sometime later, looking for a place to stay, how could she say no?

The rest was history.

Up to a point, though, because while she accepted that things changed, sometimes change wasn't quite a good change. Two years after that attempted revolution during the Christmas season, she was disgruntled with her new government. She was still young, why should she already be jaded towards them, others had asked her. Why couldn't she give these guys a chance to make something good for once?

She remained silent, choosing not to tell anyone how the boy who had changed the course of her life had been drafted and given no choice by a government agency to risk his life on a daily basis to ensure it wasn't toppled. That the boy had become so important to her that whenever he was unhappy, she was too. Being human, she had to find sources of happiness so that she didn't fall into chronic depression but it always sank her heart to see just how unhappy that boy had become.

She could still remember those smiles, ones so broad and full of mischief, reminding her of little boys laying out a trick. Now, though, those smiles had been replaced by fake ones that tried to reassure her that yes, he was okay, don't worry about him.

That was something she just couldn't do.

So she tried to find a way to bring those smiles from the old days back, the real smiles that let her know that this boy was as happy on the inside as well as the outside. She studied the law, searched for any loopholes that could help her liberate him. Two years' worth of searching and she had found nothing. The only thing she did get out of it was that she really knew what rights she had and what their government could and could not do.

And she was still no closer to helping Duo…

To say she was surprised to get a call from Quatre would be an understatement but once she figured out why he was here, that was when she figured it was time to shut up. She hadn't spoken with any of the other Gundam pilots with the exceptions of "hi" and "how are you?" If anything, Duo monopolized their time and she would drift back into the background.

She didn't have a problem with that. She figured that if any of those guys wanted to get to know her, they'd come to her. Hadn't happened but she didn't see it as a great loss. Duo's presence by itself more than made up for it.

However, she also knew just how frustrating Duo could be. Even after the wars, he had always had this wanderlust. He couldn't stay in a place for too long and even she knew there were some aspects of fighting that he missed. She herself indulged in guns; she liked holding guns and the power that a loaded one provided. Was she into it as Duo was? No but she understood to some degree and that was what counted.

She had to stop thinking about this, though, and get back to work. Even if it was a slow day. Might as well chat online, distract herself. She knew she hadn't heard the last of Quatre yet and odds were the Preventers were going to keep an eye on her in case Duo came calling. She had no idea or just what exactly was going on other than what Quatre had told her but she had a feeling there was more to it.

A covert mission and Duo going missing as a result. Duo didn't just disappear for no reason. He probably found out too much about something and was trying to save his own tail. She wouldn't be surprised if the guys in charge were keeping that tidbit away from the other pilots. It would be what politicians would do.

If she had no sense, she would be blogging about this right now but she did have sense so that's what she wasn't going to do. Instead, she would do what she always did. Bitch and moan in the chatrooms and see if she could find any sympathy. With how business was today, she'd figured she could get an hour or two in before anybody came in.

About an hour later, she was still on the computer, looking up every now and then to see if anyone had come in and was disappointed every time. Oh well, she was kinda enjoying herself right now. She had only left one chatroom where she had been having the most interesting conversation on whether alien life existed beyond the Colonies and was now chatting with someone who called their self _DragQueenS2_. Now that one was lending a sympathetic ear.

In fact, the two of them had gone off to have a private chat and here Hilde was spilling out all her frustrations with this mystery person. She had to admit, this _DragQueenS2 _was a very patient and attentive listening. It was like they understood exactly where she was coming from.

…she needed to check something.

_You're not one of those conspiracy nuts, are you?_ she typed and sent.

_Not really. I'd rather be a person who knows what's going on than guess at it._

Oddly reassuring but oh well.

_Say, do you live in one of the Colonies?_ popped up on her screen and that was a red alert if she ever saw one. Why was this person asking where she lived?

_Why do you ask?_

She chewed on her lip waiting for her answer. Depending on how she was answered, it would determine what she would do from there. Either she would back out of the conversation entirely and avoid this person as best as she could or…well, she hadn't thought that far yet. Maybe that was why Duo was always telling her to think before she acted. She tended to get into more trouble when she was impulsive.

A bit ironic since most people had the belief that Duo was the one who was impulsive. That guy always thought out what he was going to do. What made him different was that he didn't make specific plans, just general so that he could adapt if shit hit the fan.

_I'm visiting the Colonies for my honeymoon. Right now I'm taking a rest and catching up on some news and stuff. As it turns out, something came up at work and my husband has to do something with them today so I'm all alone. I was thinking of getting some lunch here pretty soon and was wondering if we couldn't take this chat of ours into the real world for a bit?_

Sounded innocent enough but Hilde had heard about stuff like these. These guys would win your trust online and ask to meet you in person where they would kidnap and sell you into some kind of sex slavery. Excuse her for having self-preservation in mind, she was going to back out of this. Before she could give some excuse why she had to leave or rudely just exit, another message popped up suddenly and Hilde found herself reading it.

_I just realized what it sounded like. I remember hearing about this human trade where they try to convince you to meet them after chatting online and I just figured out what I'm sounding like and I'm sorry about that._

Yeah, that really sounded like this person was sorry and…what the hell was up with all the underlined words? Actually, it was more like underlined letters but it was certain ones as well.

Hold on a sec…

Taking a notepad, she quickly scrawled out the underlined letters, coming up with readbetweenthelines. Staring at it for a second, she thought she recognized words in that line of letters. Read between the lines? Why…? Hold up.

She looked at the previous message and saw the underlined letters there. Huh, she must have not seen them the first time. It was just more obvious in the second message. Again, she wrote down these new letters and came up with meetmedmtwo. This one was a bit trickier. She saw "meet" and "two" but what was "medm"?

Unless…

It was a bit of a stretch but…wow.

Meet me d m two. D m. Those were initials, not a word.

Holy shit, Duo was contacting her! No wonder this person was so easy to talk with! But really, _DragQueenS2_? He could have picked another name. It wasn't like she was being monitored…oh wait, the Preventers. They were probably reading this conversation as it happened.

_Which Colony are you on? Is it XJ90451?_ she typed in rapidly.

_Are you a mindreading? That's where I am!_

A coincidence much? Wait, she was talking with Duo. Of course he'd be on the Colony already. He was still playing a role.

_Which hotel are you staying in?_

A couple minutes passed and then—_I think it's called the Carlton Tower._

_There's a café near there called Poodle's. Want to meet up there in half an hour?_

Hilde held her breath, hoping that she had picked a good place.

_I know where that is. Wow, I'm going to meet someone I've met online in person! I'm so excited!_

Yeah, yeah, sound like those creepy slave traders why don't you? Only you Duo. How she had put up with you…well, kinda spoke a lot about her that she wanted him back, right? Probably not the best question for her to ask.

Looking at the time, she saw that it was way past her lunchtime. Closing time was only a couple hours away so she had no excuse to do something like this. Hell, she was the manager, the boss! She could do what she wanted even if it was detrimental to the business! Besides, closing up early for one day wasn't going to hurt anything. It wasn't like she was bustling with business!

* * *

><p>"She's heading out, sir," the Preventer agent reported, Quatre nodded as his eyes remained on the screen. Various vantage points had been scoped out before and cameras hung up to capture those views and this was before he had even called the young woman.<p>

"Where could she be going before closing time?" he asked out loud. He knew the business hours of the scrapyard and how few employees there were. Hilde leaving like this was irresponsible of any businessperson trying to make it through life.

So yeah, it was obvious that she was probably meeting someone that she shouldn't be meeting.

"She's on the move, Trump," he phoned in to Heero, the acting of taking out his phone and speed dialing the other agent automatic.

"_Follow her_," Heero ordered. "_See where she's going and who she's meeting if that is the case. Don't lose her._"

"Roger," Quatre said, hanging up. "Don't lose the target," he ordered, keep her in sight at all times. "If anyone loses her, they will answer to me and their excuse had better be good."

* * *

><p>Poodle's was one of those Mom n' Pop restaurants that had managed to survive through the poverty that wrecked the L2 Cluster and managed not to close down in seventy-five consecutive years. Consecutive was the key word; the place could be traced back to the early days of this particular Colony but had been closed down periodically due to health violations.<p>

Yeah, the food was horrible but the fact that it was a landmark in this place was what kept people coming. The coffee was good and the tea meh.

Other than its longevity and commonality with a cockroach, the place was like other establishments here. Last Hilde recalled, the place hadn't been robbed in months so either she was in the clear or they were overdue.

It didn't help her nerves that she had been sitting at a booth with a freshly brewed cup of Joe for the past ten minutes or so. The coffee had lost quite a bit of heat but was still hot enough if only because of the insulation the coffee mug gave. She tapped a short, brown straw, the same one she had used to stir milk in her warm beverage, irritably as she looked at her watch and huffed.

The idiot was late. Why the hell was he late when she had given him a good half hour to get here? Jesus, she swore he did this to her just to get on her nerves.

"Welp, I wouldn't annoy ya if I didn't love ya," she quoted mockingly as she rolled her eyes. "Right, you must fucking worship me you ass."

Boisterous laughter erupted from the other side of the café, a group of old men reliving their old days by telling one another weird or hilarious stories that happened in their youth. Hilde briefly wondered if women that age did the same but disregarded it as soon as she did. What was she thinking, in the Cluster, of course they did!

Someone passed by her booth, their shadow falling over her for a second but she ignored it as she took a sip from her cooling drink. The shadow was soon back but it was followed up by a person asking, "_deathfollower0451_?"

Hilde paused and looked up, eyebrows raising at the sight of an impressively tall blond whose head was tilted downwards. It looked like he was peering into a gorge, his head was tilted that far.

"Looking for someone?" she asked instead.

"You did not answer my question," the blond replied, his voice flat. Hilde frowned at how little affect there was but decided that it didn't mean anything. That and the splotches of black in his hair. Either it was a really bad dye job or he was really neglecting his dye treatments.

"I don't know you," she shrugged. "Unless you know anyone that calls themselves _DragQueenS2_ then you're in the wrong place."

Instead of saying anything to that, the black-speckled blond took a seat across from her. Okay, what the hell?

"Um, what are you doing?" she asked irritably.

"I go by the moniker that you mentioned," the blond said.

"So…you're _DragQueenS2_?" Hilde asked slowly, beginning to curse herself. Either Duo was doing this to really piss her off or she had just made a blunder and had set herself up to be kidnapped and sold into slavery.

"For now, yes," the blond said. "And you are…you're Hilde?"

Why the heck had he stopped midway and rephrased his wording? This guy was a creep, wasn't he? Probably stayed at home, if he had one, and wacked off to online porn. What, he wanted the real thing now or something?

"What do you recommend?" the blond asked mechanically, as if he had rehearsed that to a mirror.

Hmm, should she give him a hard time and tell him to order something edible or should she warn him off and let him get something caffeinated? Hmm, tough question.

However, before she could answer, the blond was speaking again. Hilde could only blinking blandly back as the blond asked, "Do you know where the restrooms are? My friend went to it but hasn't come out. Do you think you could check for me?"

Oh, she knew where this was going now. This guy wasn't even trying, probably just a rookie at this. Oh he had a friend in the restroom, one who was most likely holding a piece of cloth that was drowned in chloroform. Rank amateur this guy was.

"I bet," she stated, eyes half lidded as she didn't try to hide her aggravation. What an idiot she was. She had been so sure that Duo had been the one sending her those messages.

"You cannot…can't miss my friend, he has a long braid," the blond said.

Hilde paused. "How long?" she asked, suspicious.

The blond remained silent, his face screwed up in a way that it suggested to Hilde that he was trying to remember something. "…uh…not long to be illegal and short enough to die for. I think."

"The restroom you said, right?" Hilde almost demanded, her heart pounding in her chest. There was only one person she knew that used such an expression, or at least close to it. Duo used to say it all the time when they shared a living space, especially when she had asked to know how much longer he was going to let it grow.

"Correct," the blond said.

"Get a coffee," she told him as she stood up. After that, she tried not to rush to the restrooms because she really didn't want to give Duo anymore material to tease her with. No, she would be casual, like she was only going to freshen up.

It was only as she reached the actual restroom that she realized that it was gender segregated. Poodle's had really wanted to emulate the cafés of the twentieth, twenty-first, and twenty-second centuries and she was finding herself confronted with the symbol of female and male, each one on a door. Which one was Duo hiding in?

The answer was obvious; it would be the women's. Hilde had seen Duo's hair down enough times to know that if he wanted to, the guy could make himself look like the other sex. Naturally, Duo was vehemently against dressing up as a girl because, and she was quoting, he was not into that kind of shit.

That, and Duo was unorthodox. He liked to surprise you, pleasantly and unpleasantly she might add, and was always thinking of ways to circumvent rules.

Was she surprised when she entered the women's restroom that it was empty? A little. Deciding to make sure, she checked out the stalls to see if anyone was hiding in them. She had to remember that Duo wasn't going to wait in plain sight, especially if it was in a place that anyone could come in at any time.

The first couple of stalls proved to be disappointing and just as she was going for the handicapped stall, the door suddenly opened and she found herself being dragged in. A hand clamped over her mouth and she had a flash a fear. Perhaps she had been mistaken that—

"Sorry 'bout my cover man but I can't afford to be seen right now," a very familiar voice whispered into her ear, hot air tickling flesh.

"Ass," she said as she pulled away from the one and only Duo Maxwell, landing a light punch into his arm. "What'd you con out of that guy to make him do that anyway? Sounds like that physics guy with the computer voice you like listening to."

"I didn't do anything," Duo held his hands up, "he came out of the package that way. Hope you don't mind him; he's kinda my partner right now."

"Right," Hilde drawled as she crossed her arms. "So, are you going to tell me what's going on and why Quatre came by to talk even though we haven't seen each other in years?"

"They sent Quatre, huh?" Duo muttered. Shaking his head, he replied, "Real long story, Hil. Too much to tell in too little time."

"How about you try me," Hilde challenged.

"Now's not the time," Duo stated. "I'll tell you what I can but right now, I need information. Specifically, I need to know what's been going on on this Colony in the past three years."

Hilde frowned. "Don't you mean two?" Her frown deepened when she noticed the blond splotches in his long hair. Looks like she knew who was responsible for the bad dye jobs.

"I need to be refreshed on what was happening before I left and what happened after," Duo stated, his head cocked as he listened for any other sounds. "Little time to waste, they'll expect you to come out soon."

"Who? What's going on Duo?" Hilde demanded.

"Preventers tailed you here; they're watching your every move. Probably bugged your place too," Duo said quickly. "They think you'll lead them to me on an off chance."

"Christ, what did you do this time?" Hilde asked, frowning.

"Now's not the time. Local events please," Duo replied.

Hilde sighed. Like old times, wasn't it?

* * *

><p>"Who is that guy?" Quatre asked, frowning as he watched the café through binoculars. Hilde had come here of all places and taken a seat close to the front window. He had to remind himself that she was not as trained as he and the others were and wasn't going to be sitting down in a corner or less open place.<p>

But she had waited for quite some time and this mystery man had appeared. A couple minutes later, she was heading towards the back while the guy remained seated and ordered something when a waitress came by.

Who was this guy and why did Quatre have a feeling that he should know who it was?

"We're trying to run a check but nothing's come up," a fellow agent reported.

"I didn't think he'd have a criminal record," Quatre said dryly. "Try driver's licenses and other certificates of that nature. Let's try and figure out who this guy is. Fast."

* * *

><p>Little did Quatre know that he wasn't the only person spying on the shop.<p>

"There he is!"

"What do we do?"

"What else? The doc gave us those freaks and told us to use them. That's what we're going to do."

"Fuckin' crazy…"

* * *

><p>"Care to tell me what's going on now?" Hilde asked, finally giving Duo the information that he had required. "Don't try and stiff me on this one, Duo."<p>

Giving a quick guess to how much time had passed since Hilde entered the restroom, he said, "Can't tell you a lot now but I'll tell you this much. There was this raid a while back and it found some weapons were being sent to a supposedly abandoned Alliance base. We went to check it out and found a lot of odd stuff there. I got separated from the others but not before taking some of the data we recovered in case any of us got captured."

"If it's the data they want, why don't you just give it to them?" Hilde asked.

"Because it involves my partner in there," he told her, jerking his head towards the general direction of "Solo." "There's also this science project that's not legal at all and involves human experimentation and the next level of soldiers. The guys behind it want to make Mobile Suits obsolete and replace it with an army of human clones that all have the personality of Heero Yuy."

"And you haven't told the Preventers any of this why?" Hilde demanded. "You're a fugitive now! Wanted, again! And if they capture you, they're going to send you to prison Duo! Prison! And this time no one's going to bust you out!"

"So I have to turn myself in? Same results, Hil, and I can't let them get their hands on my partner," Duo rebuffed. "Besides, it's not only the Preventers who are on our tail. The guys behind all this are chasing us too and they want him back."

"Why the hell are you doing all this for that guy?" Hilde exclaimed. "Why's he so important that you have to keep him out of the Preventers' hands, the same people who could protect him from the bad guys?"

"Outta time," Duo said sharply. "You've been in here long enough. Go back out, chat with him for a bit, then leave. Don't raise your tail's suspicions."

"You didn't answer my question!" Hilde protested.

"There's no more time! Get back out there!" Duo snapped at her. "I'll tell you more when there's time, alright. Now go!"

"Christ, you can be so difficult!" Hilde swore but obeyed him nonetheless. Duo remained in the stall, wincing slightly at how loud the door slammed shut. After that, the silence was almost deafening and oppressive.

He hadn't meant to get Hilde wrapped up in all this and before everything was said and done, she'd be in deeper than before. Combing his fingers through his hair, he sighed.

Things weren't going to get much better any time soon. He had a gut feeling that told him that. But for now, he was going to have to sneak back out of this place. It would suck if he was cornered in the women's bathroom by who knows how many Preventer agents.

If there were going to be headlines, he could see them now. And no, he was not going to put them into thought just for your amusement.

Peeking out of the stall, he waited a second, focusing on the noise from beyond the bathroom door, listening for any approaching footsteps. Nothing yet so he took his chance to head towards the small window that this particular restroom had. There wasn't one in the men's, unfortunately, and this was why he was glad he had scouted this place out before Hilde had arrived. That also included her Preventers tail.

Standing on his toes, he reached up to the open window and pushed on it with his fingertips, pushing the window open slightly. Lowering himself, he bent his knees then made a leap. He grabbed the windowsill, his feet dangling from the floor as he pushed the window open further. Once there was enough room, he began snaking an arm through the opening, pulling the rest of his body up.

There was a lot of effort and a lot of squirming but he squeezed through, his feet just leaving as the bathroom door opened. He held his breath as the female patron headed into a stall and when he heard the ruffling of clothes, he quietly shut the window behind him.

By now, Hilde should be finishing up with "Solo" and soon enough he would retrieve the blond and head back to their little lair.

Making sure that his braid was tucked under his jacket, he strolled out of the alleyway and onto the main street, whistling a light tune. If he moved and acted like he belonged here, no one would look twice at him.

As he passed Poodle's front, he could see that Hilde was talking amicably with "Solo," probably trying to see if she could tease anything more out of him. He could tell by now that "Solo" was really uncomfortable with this as the blond was shifting in his seat every few seconds. He was so unused to such intense interrogation but the fact that he was socially awkward was what was keeping him from spilling his guts.

Eyes flickering away and to his surroundings, he could already pick up a couple of the Preventer agents who were watching Hilde as unobtrusively as they could. They were probably trying to find out about who the hell "Solo" was and at least there Duo knew they wouldn't find anything. It would be pure luck if they managed to find anything on one of the many clones that had been sent out and even then the trail would go cold. All the clones were dead and "Solo" here was the final combination of them all.

That reminded him that he really needed to read those pages he had printed out back on Earth. He still hadn't gotten around to reading them. Jeez, he was really letting himself go. Was he scared to find out what else was going on with this whole thing? That maybe there was one more thing that would shatter his world one more time?

He had to get over that because knowing what was on those papers might mean the difference between life and death. Shying away from them just because he was afraid of what he might find out was not going to help anyone.

He needed to regrow his balls or something. He was starting to sound like someone else, someone that was not the gung-ho, let's blow some shit up kind of guy that every once in a while came up with a battle plan. Things used to be much simpler.

And he was falling back into that "if only things were different" trap. Get over it Duo and pay attention to the here and now. Wondering about hypothetical might-have-beens was going to get you nowhere.

He continued walking passed the café, trying to think of a way to signal his blond companion in there that it was time to bail, ignoring the sound of a diesel engine as a large van passed by. He didn't want to be too obvious because Hilde's tail might become their tail. They would have to lose the tail then and if that happened, then Preventers would begin focusing more on them, trying to pick up their trail.

They were already on their trail but it was a trail that would get them nowhere. This trail would lead them closer than Duo felt comfortable. So how was he—

Why the hell was that van backing up? That fucking beeping sound was annoying the hell out of him. He needed to think here, not get distracted by this urban shit. The van's engine continued to rumble as it came to a stop but Duo figured he ought to put some space between him and it. He needed to think damn it and while he could think under pressure, it wasn't something that he liked to do. He liked to react impulsively under pressure, not puzzle under it.

He was starting to get some freaky voodoo vibes from that van, though. The driver had gotten out and was walking quickly to the back, opening the rear doors.

From his vantage, Duo could see what was in it and what he glimpsed caused his eyes to widen and his hand to reach for his gun.


	14. Chapter 14

Author's Note: Action junkies should enjoy this chapter. I will admit, when I wrote the first half of this chapter, I was reminded of the fights back in _The Maxwell Project_, _Progeny_, and _Prodigy_. Second half, though, is more along the lines of what fights constitute in this story. Nevertheless, enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Warning: language, violence, death

Chapter 14

"You're not much of a talker, are you?" Hilde asked as she watched the blond intently.

Well, maybe if she gave him more than ten seconds to answer…but it wasn't her fault that she hadn't gotten much out of this guy. She was having trouble reading him, picking up on the little tics of body language that could speak so much more than any spoken word could.

What she had figured out about was that his nonverbal language was really limited. She could tell when he was listening but she couldn't figure out what he was thinking or feeling. Did he have no emotions or something? Perish that thought because the last thing anybody needed was another Heero Yuy. And she was just copying what Duo said. She really didn't know much about the Asian descended Gundam Pilot and never really had much interaction with him at all.

The most she could remember of him, outside of all the news broadcasts of him saving the world, was from a gurney as she was being wheeled away to surgery. That was her contribution to the war effort against White Fang and after that she had to sit out. She really disliked having to sit on the sidelines.

Back to this blond here, what was his name? Funny, Duo never gave her one and this guy had never mentioned one. Should she start there? Yeah, she should start there and work her way to other questions. Right.

"What do I call you?" she asked, waiting patiently this time.

Slowly, but surely, the blond said hesitantly, "I am…I'm called Solo."

Solo, huh? Anything to do with Duo? There had to be some kind of story behind that name. If only this guy were more open, she could get more out of him.

"How long have you known Duo, Solo?" she asked.

"Not long," Solo answered.

"Where did you meet?" she asked.

"I don't think it would be appropriate to tell you," Solo stated.

Oh no. Oh no, he was not stiffing her on this like Duo was.

"I'm trying to help you guys!" she protested. "If I don't know what's going on, how can I help?"

"Duo would know how you can best aid us," Solo answered.

"Don't tell me you need his permission to take a piss," Hilde spat out, frustrated.

"I am…I'm as much a stranger in this as you are," Solo admitted. "With all my training and education, I was never prepared to be in a situation like this."

"Training? What?" Hilde asked, confused.

"Are we finished here?" Solo asked, look up at her with piercing green eyes. "If so, it would be best if I rendezvous with Duo."

"Hang on," she said, becoming alarm as the blond stood up from his seat. "Hey. Where are you going?"

"To Duo," Solo said simply.

"Wai—" Hilde began to say, stretching her arm out as gunfire blasted from outside.

Suddenly, the uncertainty that had clouded the blond disappeared and everything about Solo was sharp. His eyes were darting around, searching for the nearest exit but before he could make a move, the far wall caved in.

Brick and mortar cascaded out and onto the floor, various customers shrieking in surprise and ducking, trying to avoid flying debris. Hilde lifted her head up, blinking blearily as the dust and speckles of plaster clouded the restaurant. It was only now that she realized that she was on the floor, Solo above her and holding her down.

There was movement from where the wall was and as the air cleared, Hilde's eyes began to widen in horror.

Picking itself up, a misshapen humanoid _thing_ stood up. The right side of the body was enormous, freakishly large muscles and corded veins grotesque in comparison to the thin, sickly looking left side. The legs were thick but covered with skintight body pants and the head was perpetually leaning to a side.

Even from where she was, she could see the facial features were close if not identical to Solo, bloodshot green eyes zooming in on the blond. This monstrous, humanoid creature let out a guttural roar and threw itself at Solo, swinging its muscled arm like a club.

Solo rolled out of the way, a humongous fist almost skimming Hilde's back as it passed over her. Then shots were being fired right next to her as Solo unloaded into the monster.

The bullets didn't seem to faze the monster as it took another swing. Solo ducked under it and fired two shots into the monster's head. Surprisingly, that did not put this thing down. Hilde marveled as the creature took the bullets, blood flowing out of the holes as it continued to try and club Solo down.

The blond had backed away by now and was throwing himself over the cashier's counter. Hilde ducked her head, covering it with her arms in some desperate belief that such an action would protect her as the creature moved past her to go after Solo.

With a roar, the thing raised its massive fist up and brought it down on the cashier's counter, smashing it into splinters. The creature made a strange noise as it found that Solo was nowhere to be found where it thought he would be.

A couple of bullets tore through the air from behind and Hilde jerked her head back to the hole in the wall that Duo was now standing in. Even from where she laid on the floor, she could see a gash on his forehead, blood oozing from the wound and flowing down the side of his head. He was favoring his right leg and panting though what put him in this shape, she had no clue.

At least he was holding his gun steady.

The creature glared at the braided one, snorting air through its nostrils. That was when Solo appeared on its back, trying to wrap his arms around the humanoid beast's neck. The large corded muscles were making this a hard feat and upon feeling Solo on it, the monster bellowed as it tried to reach behind to grab the blond.

When it wasn't immediately successful, it began to buck around, trying to jostle Solo off it and Duo took this opportunity to fire another shot into the creature's head. The monster's head snapped backwards from the jolt but did not fall immediately. Meanwhile, Solo was bringing a fist up and ramming down on the monster's head with a violent crack.

Then Duo moved to a side as an incredibly tall, thin, and spidery figure tried to tackle him and Hilde was further horrified to see that this new thing looked like Solo as well. This new thing let out a hiss as it spun around towards Duo who had launched himself at it, landing a foot right into its face.

Long, claw-like fingers darted out and snatched Duo before he could return the floor. Another identical hand curled into a ball-like fist and swung at Duo who blocked the blow with his forearm. With his other hand, Duo slammed the butt end of his gun into this new creature's face, succeeding in breaking its nose but not relinquishing its grip on him.

Back with Solo, the blond was landing punch after punch on the head of the behemoth he was almost on top of. Hilde was somewhat shocked to see that the large monster's head was twisted about 120˚ from where a human head should be and each punch was forcing it further and further. Seeing that Duo was in trouble, the blond gripped the large monster's torso with his legs and raised both his hands up, clenching them together and bringing them down in a mighty jackhammer on the monster's head.

The large monster stumbled onto the floor and Solo used its malformed back as a launch pad to throw himself at the thin creature. Arms crossed in front of his head, he rammed into the thin creature's back, forcing it to let go of Duo as it was crushed into the floor under Solo's weight.

However, this new threat recovered quickly and it bounced Solo off of it, flopping on the floor like a landed fish and then twisting unnaturally to deliver a kick into Solo's side. The hit sent Solo careening through the air and out through the large window at the front of Poodle's where he landed on pavement and skidded into the street.

However, before the thin creature could take advantage of this, Duo was behind it, gun leveled point blank at the back of its head and without remorse, Duo fired. The face of this corrupted version of Solo exploded as blood splattered everywhere, bits of skull and brain flying everywhere as the rest of the long bodied slumped down to its final resting place.

Hilde was not pleased to find out that some of that brain had gotten into her hair and if she made it out of this, she was so going to let Duo have it.

The large behemoth Solo creature was getting back up on its feet, dazed but gathering its wits back. After seeing the blows Solo had landed on it, Hilde was dismayed to see that it was not out of commission yet and she ducked her head back down to avoid looking at it.

By now she was starting to get a sense of what the fuck was going on and to be honest, she wanted this thing to be over with.

"Ugly son of a bitch," Duo muttered as he fired more shots at the large monster, his gun suddenly clicking as it ran out of bullets. "Fuck!"

For as much good as it did, Duo could have had better luck blowing up a mountain with a grenade. The beast was unfazed by the gunshots and was looking for Solo, spotting the blond outside the shop.

Hilde winced with sympathy towards the café owners as the monster charged through what was left of the front window, taking some more of the surrounding wall with it as it exited. The insurance company was not going to believe this.

"Hilde, you okay!" Duo demanded as he reloaded.

"Never better!" she retorted. "What the fuck was—"

"No fucking clue. Just stay down and when you can, get the fuck as far from this place as you can," Duo ordered.

"Aye, aye, captain," she grimaced as Duo followed after his quarry.

* * *

><p>Duo had just emerged from the building as "Solo" was rolling out of the way of that large freak's fist. He was not surprised to see that humungous fist punch a hole straight through the street but it looked like it was having a hard time trying to pull it out.<p>

Of course that may have been because "Solo" had fired a shot into one of its kneecaps and threw its balance completely off but Duo wasn't about to start calling it a day yet.

That was because there was a third one lurking around but after Duo had shot one of its eyes out, he wasn't sure if it was nursing a grudge still. Seeing how rabid the other two were, Duo had a feeling it was waiting for the right time to strike—and now it was as it jumped off the top of the ruined restaurant, screeching a battle cry.

Duo hadn't needed to look to move out of the way, his body had done a good job of that by acting before his mind could catch up. Right where he had been standing was another Solo copy that could have looked like the "Solo" he knew except for the fact that its head was swelled up disproportionately. Kinda had a hunchback of Notre Dame thing going on with how far the forehead extended outwards but the rest of the head was just eww.

The fact that shocks of blond hair sprang out from random points on the malformed head just really made it look gross.

This third Solo creature bellowed at him, sounding like a mentally deficient kid he had known back at the Maxwell Church. It would have been comical had there not been murderous intent in that remaining green eye.

It was also a bitch that he was on his last clip. Fighting whatever the hell these things were consumed a lot of bullets.

"Duo! Duck!" a voice yelled at him from behind and Duo obeyed, dropping to his knees as bullets shot over his head and embedded themselves into the mutant in front of him. Sounded like Quatre had come to his rescue but Quatre's shots had only caused the Solo mutant to stumble back a step before it charged at the two of them.

Duo rolled out of the way as the monster thundered passed him, twisting his body around to fire two shots into the thing's back as Quatre ducked under a wildly thrown fist.

At that point, there was a screech and the roar of an engine, the sound diverting Duo's attention away for a second. He saw what looked like a SWAT vehicle roaring down the road, a grill-guard protecting the engine as it hurtled towards the large monster that "Solo" was facing. Having taken advantage of the thing's plight, "Solo" had been wailing on the thing but to little effect. Duo had to wonder if the guy was even using his full strength because whatever he was doing, it wasn't much.

It was fascinating to watch as the grill-guarded van slammed into the corrupted version of Solo, knocking it out of its stuck position and practically running it over. Duo intentionally looked away, preferring not to see the bloody mess that was sure to occur in favor of watching Quatre in the middle of throwing the large-headed Solo clone over his shoulder.

Wait, what?

No, his eyes weren't deceiving him. Quatre had grabbed hold of the Solo creature and had flipped him over his smaller self, slamming the creature's back into the pavement. At point blank, Quatre fired his gun into the misshapen being, bullets ripping into the throat and head. Unlike that other Solo monster, bullets were having a much more devastating impact.

That didn't mean that the thing was done for. It shoved Quatre away from it, somehow, impossibly, sitting back up even as its life was draining quickly from the holes in its head and neck.

A metallic slam redirected Duo's attention back to the van, the bulbous Solo monster still active. This corrupted Solo had literally thrown the van off from on top of it, the van flipping over onto its roof, thus the metallic slam. And it was getting up.

Gunshots from close by, and he really meant close by, fired and Duo found his back splattered with blood. Falling to the sidewalk behind him, the third Solo monster had finally bit the bucket not without one attempt to take someone with it.

And it had to be Quatre who saved him.

By now, other Preventer vehicles were arriving on the scene, along with other local authorities that were armed to the teeth and ready to turn the last Solo monster to a bloody pulp. While he would like to stick around and make sure that the thing was taken down, Duo knew that now was the perfect time to get out of there.

"Hold it," Quatre ordered, the blond's gun now aimed at him. "It's over Duo. Don't run."

Ah, so authoritative and none of the kindness he knew the other to possess. Quatre was firmly in professional mode and he meant business. Duo didn't doubt for a second that the other wouldn't shoot him. He would if it meant keeping him in one spot.

But Duo couldn't afford to stick around either.

Whether it was a blessing, Duo didn't know but that monster Solo was refusing to quit. Before the Preventers or local police could get set up to reduce the thing to nothing, the creature was making one last rampage, picking up the van and throwing it at anyone making their way towards it. It just so happened that when the van bounced as it hit the street, it was heading in his and Quatre's direction.

Both knew that had to break the one-sided standoff to avoid the vehicle and without saying a word, that's what the two of them did. While Duo threw himself forward, Quatre went in the opposite direction, the van landing just where they had both been. With the van between him and Quatre, Duo took off, darting around the corner of Poodle's and into the intersecting street. The Preventers would be too busy taking down the Solo monster and only Quatre was paying attention to him.

That wouldn't last for long but it would be a head start.

Now where was "Solo"?

Footsteps coming from behind him. A quick glance over his shoulder informed the braided one that "Solo" was on his heels. Who knew where he had come from but Duo wasn't complaining right now. It was one less thing to worry about as the two hauled ass out of there.

* * *

><p>Hilde remained impassive as an emergency services attendant looked her over, checking to see if she was injured and if so how severe. Nothing but scratches and that was something a few Band-Aids and antibiotics could handle.<p>

Her psyche on the other hand might need some help. It didn't help that she had heard the massive firing of dozens of machine guns and the angry roars of that abnormal looking person that happened to resemble Solo. However, the massive beast had finally fallen; not even it was immune to several hundred bullets hitting and going through it. Blood loss and loss of brain function aided that along.

Even as the Preventers were trying to hide the deformed carcass form public sight, Hilde could still catch a glimpse of it from where she sat on the bumper of an ambulance. There was just so much blood; how could a thing like that have so much blood? They could probably paint the whole street with it and still have some leftover.

She hadn't seen Quatre though she had heard him a while ago. She guessed that he had taken off after Duo, bringing as many agents as he could with him. He stood a good chance of doing it. With how the place around them was wrecked, Duo would have had to escape on foot and even then he could only go so far.

The best she could do right now was offer a little prayer to whatever deity that favored Duo that it would get him out of this mess.

* * *

><p>They hadn't gotten as far away as Duo had hoped and right now, the two of them had been cornered into a building that was on the outskirts of this particular Colony's slums. They were somewhat still in the urban part but just out of the residential areas so the back alleys here didn't have all the niches and shortcuts that the ones in the slums would.<p>

He gave props to Quatre; even caught off guard the blond was quick to adjust. He had managed to get his hands on a few Preventer cars and had cut their escape route off early, forcing them into their current situation.

The duo had broken into the first building they could reach and it happened to be a dilapidated, practically abandoned apartment complex that was only a few weeks away from being approved of being demolished. While there were plenty of places to hide in here, they were essentially sitting ducks.

Quatre could either choose to wait them out or put an end to this quickly and bust right in. The hard part was figuring out which tactic Quatre was going to use and it didn't help that Quatre was a master strategist. Knowing Quatre, he would use a combination of both, keeping them pinned in here while trying to sneak agents in to catch them off guard. Or he could do something that Duo hadn't even thought of.

And it maybe wasn't a good idea that this building had multiple floors and that he was on the third floor. High up enough that jumping out meant certain injury but low enough that death was fifty-fifty depending on how he landed.

He wondered where "Solo" was now. He had told the guy they needed to split up as soon as they entered the building but again that may have been a premature decision. Now he had no idea of what the blond was doing and if push came to shove "Solo" would place his setting on kill. Without Duo there to hold him back, there was a great chance that there was going to be a bloodbath.

But he wasn't going to actively search for "Solo." Too much space to cover and a questionable amount of time to do it. Questionable because Duo had no idea of what Quatre was going to do or when he was going to do it.

"_You are surrounded! Drop your weapons and come out with your hands up! There's no escape!_" some idiot with a megaphone called out to them. Pfft, trying to intimidate either of them. Since it wasn't Quatre who was speaking, Duo thought that made the likelihood that he was going to raid this building personally greater.

If only there was such a thing as a reset button. Duo could sure use it right now so that he knew not to put himself in this situation. He had no idea how he or "Solo" were going to get out of this one that didn't end up with a lot of bloodshed and death. All this could do was make the rest of the Preventers pissed at him and determined to put his head on a silver platter regardless if his head was still connected to his shoulders.

He rather liked his head, thank you very much.

He peeked through a window, surveying what he was up against for the nth time. More vehicles had arrived, red and blue lights interchanged with one another, and then there was the mass of people who were covering every single angle. Duo once again asked himself how he was getting out of this one but somewhere deep inside, he already knew the answer.

He wasn't.

Well, he had been captured before, right? Jailed after the Maxwell Massacre, taken while floating in the middle of space, beat up while invading the Lunar Base, sucker punched on Dekim Barton's Colony…

That was not taking the sting out of this.

He was glad that he was not easily visible as movement caught his eye. Keeping crouched, he peered around random junk and spotted a Preventer agent searching the place. Crap, he had been so worried about the overall situation that he hadn't realized that Quatre had chosen to raid the place and was currently in the process of doing that. He should have heard gunshots by now as "Solo" was going to take a more fatalistic approach to this. The blond was not concerned about endearing himself to anybody unlike Duo.

Then again, he did recall "Solo" using a more hands-on approach back at that Goddamn Alliance base and he hadn't realized the guy was there until he ran into him. How many agents were sprawled on the ground with their necks broken? Was Quatre one of them?

_Third floor. Found anything?_

"Negative," the agent replied into his walkie-talkie. "Still searching." Duo felt mild relief that it had been Quatre's voice that had spoken. So the other pilot hadn't run into "Solo" yet.

Pushing this aside, Duo waited until the agent had put his communicator away and had his back turned towards him. Slipping out from his nook, Duo snuck up behind the agent and with a quick and precise chop, knocked the agent out. He grabbed the unconscious man quickly, lowering him slowly to the floor. Pilfering the agent's weapons and walkie-talkie, Duo returned to hiding only this time he was listening in on other conversations.

It was simple for him to make an adjustment to the communicator so that he could hear other communications but he had to keep the volume incredibly low so that he didn't make a lot of noise. Because of that, he had to keep the thing pressed to his ear so that he could still hear everything and he already knew that this was going to be a bit awkward.

So far, from what he had heard, no one had gone missing yet. So "Solo" hadn't done anything yet. Good but a bit troubling as Duo had no idea what the taller blond would be up to.

Maybe he should look for him. He'd figure out some way to get out of here even if it killed him.

He left his sanctuary, putting himself out in the open though this cluttered room he had picked to hide in could hardly be said to be open. He made quick work leaving the place, not bothering to hide the agent behind him. The guy would be out for a couple hours and Duo didn't plan on being here that long.

He stole down a hallway, being careful not to step on floorboards that had a tendency to creak until the barest of weight. A creak up ahead warned him that he was going to have company persuaded him to dart into the nearest open door and wait until the stalking Preventer passed by. As soon as the agent had passed, Duo emerged from hiding and delivered another helping of neck chopping, knocking this guy unconscious as well.

Unlike the other agent, he dragged this one back into the room he had temporarily hidden in. Back out, Duo crept around, hyper alert and sensitive to even the most softest of sounds.

_Third floor. What's your status? Third floor? Third floor!_

It sounded like Quatre was figuring out that something was up. Duo could hear the blond ordering agents up to the third floor but by now he was already taking the stairs down to the second, hiding in a closet just under them as many Preventer footsteps rumbled by. He could still hear Quatre instructing that a couple agents remain on the first, second, and fourth floors in case the other suspect was there as well.

Hold up, other suspect. Oh, of course. "Solo." So Quatre was working on the correct assumption that he had a partner. No sense wondering how the blond had come to this conclusion and Duo really didn't care. All he knew was that Quatre was looking for two of them, not one.

He was going to have to find "Solo" as soon as he could.

_We found Barkley. His pulse is still strong and there's no sign of injury._

Didn't take them long to find one of the agents but then again Duo hadn't taken the time to hide them. Leaving his closet, he continued his search for "Solo," telling himself that he would return to the third floor once the heat died down.

Passing by a window that faced an adjacent building, Duo backed up to get another look at it. Clotheslines…hey, maybe there was a way out of here yet. It wasn't much but it was something.

Continuing his lurking, he soon found a locked door. That wasn't going to be much of a problem. Pulling out his trusting lock picks, he picked the lock and entered the room just as another floorboard creaked nearby. Closing the door quietly, not relinquishing his grip on the doorknob, he listened in as an agent passed by, muttering that he had already checked the room Duo currently found himself in.

Chalk up another example of laziness saving his ass. Glancing around the room he found himself in, he saw subtle movement behind a couch that was loaded with someone's abandoned crap. He moved over to the couch, peeking over and feeling some relief as he found "Solo."

Then he got a good look at him.

The blond's body was trembling, something Duo hadn't seen before, and there was sweat drenching his forehead. His breathing was heavy and his eyes were shut tightly together. The only thing missing was that "Solo" wasn't curled into the fetal position but Duo had a feeling that if the blond wanted to, he would have been curled up already.

"Hey!" he hissed. "You okay?"

No response outside of "Solo" cracking his eyes opened. The trembling stilled but the heavy breathing remained, worrying Duo further.

"What's going on? Are you hurt?" Duo demanded, hovering over the blond.

"No…just…just…I don't know," "Solo" said. "It just came without warning."

"What came without warning?" Duo asked.

"Pain," "Solo" answered. "All over. No obvious catalyst. Gone but close to losing motor control."

Pain all over? Loss of motor control? That didn't make sense. He'd looked into it later but right now, they needed to get out of here and preferably in one piece.

"Is it something that's going to keep you here?" Duo asked, needing more pressing information. "Are you crippled?"

"No," "Solo" answered. Duo spied the blond was moving his fingers, bending his ankles and knees as if testing them. "It was probably momentary. I should be able to resume physical activity."

"I'm going to need you to get moving pretty quickly," Duo warned him. "I think I know how to get us out of here but I can't have you collapsing on me. I'll tell you to stop talking like a computer after we get out of here."

Pulling away from "Solo's" side, Duo held up the gun he had taken from the first agent he had taken down. "I'm going to see if the coast's clear. Be ready to move."

He left the couch, scurrying over towards the door but before he could reach it, he saw the doorknob start turning, followed by the sound of an opened lock clicking. Duo almost threw himself to a side, hiding out of direct sight of the door as someone entered. In only a few seconds, the Preventer agent was going to come into his view but at the angle Duo was at, the agent wouldn't know he was there until—

A recognizable shock of blond hair, quick reflexes, and an unintended scuffled happened that resulted in Duo aiming gun straight at Quatre who was doing the same. With the couch behind Quatre, Duo was somewhat cut off from sending any signal to "Solo," that is if the blond hadn't heard all the commotion.

"Duo," Quatre said lightly, almost in relief. Though his shoulders relaxed, Quatre didn't lower his gun for a second.

"Hey Quatre," Duo greeted back.

Silence fell upon the two gregarious pilots, each one eying the other contemplatively, waiting for the other to make the first move.

"It didn't have to come to this," Quatre stated.

"I know," Duo replied.

"Why didn't you come back? Why did you hide and then break into headquarters?" Quatre pressed.

"It was something I had to do," Duo said.

"What was it you had to do?"

"Something that I don't think you or the others would understand."

"Try me."

"Nope. The matter is private."

"Is it private enough that you would risk your freedom for it? That you would jeopardize everything you fought for and endanger the rest of us?"

"I'll have to get back to you on that one."

"Then answer me this: why did you shoot your gun back at that compound? What possessed you to endanger yourself and practically compromise our assignment?"

"Blasts from the past tend to put you in the worst frame of mind, buddy."

"Is this what it's about? You found an old friend of yours in that compound?"

"I guess you could say that."

"Is he your current accomplice?"

"Maybe, maybe not."

"You're not sure?"

"Definitely."

"So are you working for or with the people who were inhabiting that place?"

"Neither."

"So then whose side are you on?" Quarter exclaimed, frustrated.

"From the looks of things, I guess it's my side," Duo answered.

"You haven't been giving many straight answers," Quatre pointed out.

"You want a straight answer? Okay, here's one. I don't know the answers. I have some but I don't know everything but I am going to find out what they are," Duo stated. "I have found so many questions and when I find some answers, only more questions pop up. I'm not going to be able to find the answers I want if I go back with you."

"How do you know that?" Quatre asked.

"I'm a wanted fugitive, remember?" Duo said wryly. "The Director is going to have to show that no one, not even us, are above the law. You bring me in, she's going to throw the whole fucking book at me. I'll be lucky if I get a trial. And, spoiler alert, I will go to prison. That's what's going to happen to me and to be honest, I've had enough of prison."

"Is there any way we can work this out?" Quatre asked softly.

"Depends. Are you going to let me go?" Duo asked pointedly.

"You know I can't do that," Quatre told him.

"So we're at an impasse," Duo commented.

"For the moment," Quatre agreed. "However, if I don't contact anyone for too long, they'll come looking for me. Time's against you this time Duo."

Even though he had kept his eyes focused solely on Quatre, he could see movement behind the blond. "Solo" had emerged from his hiding spot and before Quatre knew what was happening, "Solo" grabbed his gun with one hand while his other arm sought to wrap around him.

Startled, Quatre fired off a shot just as "Solo's" hand crushed the gun barrel. Tearing a hand away from his weapon, Quatre tried to elbow "Solo" anywhere that he could but "Solo" wrestled with him, managing to restrain the smaller blond in a tenuous bear hug.

On the floor, Quatre's ruined gun been dropped and a contorted dent that resembled a hand could be seen.

"Stop fighting Quatre," Duo ordered, raising his voice slightly. Quatre ceased his struggles for a second at hearing the authority in his tone, giving "Solo" the opportunity to sure up his embrace.

"Is this how it's going to be?" Quatre asked, Duo internally wincing as he heard the steel in the blond's voice.

"If I'm not left any other choice," Duo said. "If you just let us…but that was too much to ask for. I know you and the guys too well. Whatever it takes to complete the mission. I guess in that aspect we're kinda the same except we have different missions."

"Different?" Quatre questioned, raising an eyebrow sarcastically. Oh, Quatre's anger had been stroked and Duo had heard the stories… The last thing you could ever want is for Quatre to be truly angry at you.

"Your mission is to capture me," Duo said. "Mine is to solve the mystery of Project Goliath."

"Project…Goliath?" Quatre repeated, giving him a puzzled look.

"It has to do with me," "Solo" spoke up, distracting Quatre from the braided one.

Looking up at his captor, Quatre asked, "You? What do _you_ have to do with this?"

"You don't have to answer him," Duo said, pausing before he added, "Solo." It was a bit painful saying that but Duo knew he would live. All in the name of getting "Solo" to shut up.

Unpredictably, "Solo" ignored him.

"I have everything to do with it," "Solo" answered. "I am the result of an ongoing weapons development program"

"What?" Quatre eyes nearly bulged out of his head. "What are you talking about?"

"It's too complicated and we don't have the time to spare," Duo interrupted. "But if you guys want to be in the loop…" He trailed off as he dug a hand into a pocket, searching for…got it. He hoped it hadn't been damaged during that fight with the freaks. He pulled out the flashdrive and placed it into one of Quatre's pockets. "That'll give you the answers you're looking for. Probably should have sent the thing to you. Once you analyze what's on that thing…"

"Why not come back with me?" Quatre asked. "We can make up a story. Say that you were forced to break into headquarters against your will and that I managed to intercept you on the way. Something like that. That drive should buy you some leniency."

"It's tempting," Duo admitted, "but once you know what I know…I won't risk Solo here. I lost him once and I don't want to do it again."

"_Ya little sap_," "Solo" murmured in that familiar accented voice of his. "_Dun worry 'bout me._"

"Asshole," Duo swore.

"What's going on? Why did his voice change?" Quatre demanded.

"That's another question that I'm trying to find the answer to," Duo replied.

"Don't make us enemies Duo, please," Quatre begged. "The last thing I want is to do that."

"_We gotta do what we gotta do_," "Solo" said as he removed an arm to lightly chop the back of Quatre's neck. Lightly being the key word because Quatre's head nearly flung itself off its shoulders from the tap.

"Careful!" Duo nearly cried out. "He dies and we're both royally screwed!"

"He's alive," "Solo" stated, returning to his normal voice.

"Christ," Duo moaned, making a quick check of the unconscious blond's pulse. "Let's get the fuck out of here, _now_."

"_Impatient_," "Solo" muttered for sec before returning to his blandness again.

Duo pointedly ignored that as he took the lead, darting out of the room, searching for anyone who might see them. He returned to the window he had spotted earlier, the clotheslines still visible through the glass.

"What's your plan?" "Solo" asked.

Struggling to open the window and failing, he shot at the blond, "Open this damn thing and I'll show you. I hope you're still light on your feet because for the next two minutes, we're both going to be in hell."

Copying the position Duo had gotten into, "Solo" easily pulled open the window, rust worn hinges giving out under his immense strength. It still made Duo wonder where the hell it came from. Was the guy strong enough to open a pickle jar too?

"Alright, notice anything?" the braided one asked. Without waiting for an answer, he said, "Someone forgot to pack up their laundry. Several someones in fact. All this crap is still hanging from these lines and as suicidal as we are, we're going to use these things to hide while we make our great escape. To the next building."

"I don't see how we can…" "Solo" blinked at him stupidly.

"Neither do I but we're about to find out, right?" Duo said, flashing the blond a manic smirk before he slid out through the window to start his incredibly insane plan.


	15. Chapter 15

Author's Note: And now we're back to the boring stuff. Still, some questions you may have may be answered here. Keep an eye out, important plot point to look for is in here. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Warning: language

Chapter 15

It took some effort but Quatre managed to crack open his eyes, not opening them completely due to the bright light that was stabbing into them from above. He felt sore, though he could not explain why, but he felt like he had been laying down a long time. His body felt tired but it didn't take long to restore his control over it as his vision adjusting to the brightness.

He was in an infirmary of some kind but why? Did he get hurt recently? The last he remembered was…freaks and a chase and a building and—

His mind snapped to attention as it all came back to him. Duo! Where was he? Had he been captured?

A hand pushed against his chest and he found he couldn't resist the strength of the appendage as he nearly collapsed back into his bed.

"Take it easy Quatre," Trowa warned him. "You've been out for quite a while."

"Trowa?" he rasped, trying to turn his head toward the other but found that kind of movement restricted. What the…?

He raised a shaky hand up to his neck but found it was blocked off from touching skin by something. Wait, did he have a collar on or something?

"What happened?" he demanded hoarsely. He was all business now and needed to be updated on current events.

"What do you want to know first? The situation or your health status?" Trowa asked instead, waiting on him patiently.

"The situation," Quatre decided, not given any thought to it.

"Duo is still on the lam," Trowa answered. "He managed to elude our agents and disappeared. On another matter, we recovered three bodies that have piqued the interest of our medical team. Autopsy reports should be coming in any day now but I am curious. Do you know what they were? Heero, Wufei, and I got a look at them but couldn't learn much about them."

"I'm sorry, I don't," Quatre told him, his voice hoarse. "If I remember right, they came out of nowhere and I had to compromise my stake out in order to stop their threat."

"I see," Trowa nodded. "As for you," he continued, "you were found unconscious and had to be taken to a hospital. Due to the overburdened state of the hospitals on this colony, we had to move you to a Preventers' infirmary to get you better access to medical care. Quatre, can you tell me how you managed to crack some of the vertebrae in your neck?"

What? Crack?

"I don't understand," he said, frowning at that bit of news.

The door to his room opened and Quatre saw he had more company in the form of Heero and Wufei. Quatre was having trouble reading the mood of Heero at least. Wufei he could see was somewhat relieved to see him awake though he was trying to keep from showing it. Heero, as mentioned earlier, was not as readable and due to his current exhausted state, he wasn't in enough shape to try and interpret the stiffness in Heero's posture.

"Mirage, you're up," Heero said, greeting him with his codename. Quatre repressed a frown; why wasn't Heero using their names? Was it because they were on duty or something? "Status report."

"I don't think now is a good time for this Heero," Trowa said. "Quatre just woke up. He's not in any shape to give us a briefing."

"Under normal circumstance I would agree with you but now is not a good time," Heero replied, never taking his eyes off the blond. "I need to know what has happened so that I can better handle the situation."

Quate could see Trowa was about to object but he cut the other off. "It's okay Trowa. I'll say all I can."

"You're sure?" Trowa asked.

"Not really but what we're dealing with is important," Quatre confessed, turning back towards Heero who was patiently waiting for him to begin. "We were staking out Hilde, keeping an eye on her as you had ordered. At some point, she left to go to a restaurant where she met someone."

"Was it Agent Nightmare?" Heero asked, cutting in.

"No, it was someone else," Quatre answered. "One of my agents made a remark about how this man should give up on hair dye but other than that, we did nothing. We were caught off guard when we heard screams and patrons begin fleeing the building. We thought it was some kind of robbery but then this deformed man crashed through the window…there were at least two of them and that's when Duo appeared."

"Did you make contact with him?" Heero demanded though there was no bite in his voice.

"I tried but the larger of the two…uh…peace disrupters? It behaved more like an animal than a human," Quatre tried to explain. "We had to direct out firepower to take it down before any bystanders were harmed. Duo took the opportunity to escape but we managed to run him down and corner him in an abandoned apartment complex.

"I do remember that I inserted myself and a team into the building to actively search for Duo inside while leaving a substantial force outside to make sure he couldn't leave the perimeter without being spotted. An agent didn't respond after repeated requests to call in…wait, I remember. I managed to corner Duo in a room."

"You did?" Wufei exclaimed.

"He was the one to injure you," Trowa stated more than asked.

"I…no. No, he didn't hurt me," Quatre declared, growing stronger with each word he said.

"Then what did happen?" Wufei asked slightly exasperated.

"His partner." It was coming back to him and Quatre was remembering more and more. There had been someone else in the room, someone incredibly tall and impossibly strong.

"So he's not alone," Heero commented.

"It was his partner that hurt you?" Trowa asked quietly, waiting for an answer.

"His partner was the one behind me and before I blanked out, Duo was a few feet in front of me. I don't think either of us shot a bullet." Quatre insisted.

"There were no gunshot wounds," Trowa told him.

That was a relief. At least Duo hadn't shot him. Still, what had hit him hard enough to crack the vertebrae in his neck? That's where things got a bit fuzzy.

"You were not able to apprehend Nightmare then," Heero finished for him.

"Unfortunately, no," he sighed dejectedly. "I was close but…"

"Enough with the recriminations," Heero interrupted. "Is it safe to assume that you did not witness his getaway?"

"I was out by then, yes," Quatre confirmed. Something was nagging at him in the back of his head and it was at the tip of the tongue but just couldn't bring it out. He could feel it, there was something that he was forgetting. "How…how long was I out?"

"About four days," Wufei told him bluntly. "I've taken over the Schbeiker stake out in the meantime. Maxwell did show up at the same restaurant as Hilde Schbeiker did and none of us doubt that it was a coincidence."

"F-four days?" Quatre stuttered in wonder. He was out…? For that long?

"You should have woken up earlier but some surgery had to be performed on your neck and spinal column," Trowa informed him gently. "The anesthesia is what kept you out for so long."

"Until you recover, you are on temporary leave," Heero added. "Once the medical staff has deemed you fit, you will resume your duties."

Quatre let his eyes roam up to the ceiling. So he was going to be out for an indeterminable amount of time. Goddamn it. Out of all the pilots, Duo was more affable with him than the others. With the others, Duo was pure professionalism and hardly made any effort to start up conversations with them. That wasn't always so but it had become a fact of life over the past couple of years.

Duo hardly trusted them anymore. It was himself who Duo might have willingly surrendered to. If Heero or Trowa was the one in confront him, Quatre believed that Duo would be more defiant and refuse to let himself yield.

But…Duo didn't like him. That's what Hilde had said to him all those days ago. Just remembering that brought the sting of those words back. Out of all the pilots, they were the most friendly with one another. Quatre remembered being able to go up the braided pilot and just talk about anything and vice versa. He remembered the camaraderie that had existed between the two, a companionship rivaled only by the one he shared with Trowa.

And it hurt to think that a person that he considered his best friend didn't like him. It really did. They had fought a war together, watching the other's back; that formed a kind of bond that you didn't find anywhere else. When he went to back Trowa up when said pilot had gone to the aid of his circus friends, it was Duo who was right beside him, ready to help out.

Thinking about how that changed, and for the worst, was not something he wanted to concentrate on. Unfortunately, from the looks of things, he wasn't going to have a lot to distract from it. No, he had all the time in the world now, didn't he?

By now, Heero had turned towards Wufei and Trowa and was giving them new instructions. Quatre truly was exempt for now. The three nodded and Heero and Wufei began heading for the door while Trowa hesitated for a moment.

"Would you like your clothes back?" he asked. "I can get them back for you if you're interested."

It was only now that he really figured out that he was in a hospital spock but he didn't really care at this point. Until he was released, real clothes would have to be the last thing on his mind as he would have to focus more on recovering. Besides, it not like he had anything in the pockets or—

His eyes widened. Oh hell. "Did you check the pockets?" he demanded, startling Trowa with his intensity.

"Why?" Trowa asked.

"The flashdrive!" Quatre exclaimed. "The one you gave him at the base! He gave it to me before he left. It's in one of my pockets!"

"It's what?" Trowa snapped to attention.

"I hope no one has found it and done anything with it," Quatre moaned as he let his head lean back into his pillow. "Hurry Trowa!"

He didn't need to say anything else as his fellow agent took off.

* * *

><p>There was something up with "Solo."<p>

Even now, four days after their miraculous escape, Duo hadn't figured out what was wrong with the blond. The episode that had occurred untimely during their standoff with the Preventers had only been a sign of what was to come. With every day that passed since, Duo had been seeing similar symptoms from muscles that trembled without prompting to unexpected bouts of pain that would floor the blond.

"Solo" had no idea of what was going on and Duo was out to find out what it was.

At first, he thought the blond might be getting sick, the thought making his chest ache with repressed emotion. So he went through every database on every disease known to man that he could find, putting in the list of symptoms as "Solo" had described them. He found stuff on flus and colds but the trembling muscles always eliminated those possibilities.

On a lark, he looked up information on the plague that had struck the L2 Cluster back when Duo had been a kid. There were no words to describe the amount of relief he felt when it turned out that it whatever was going on with Solo, it wasn't that plague.

"Solo" he meant. Not Solo. He wasn't his Solo. Yeah, he introduced him to Quatre as Solo but he wasn't really Solo. He just wasn't.

As he began eliminating more and more illnesses, he had to expand his search to include chronic ones. Diabetes, cancer, other diseases of that nature had to be checked through and eliminated. "Solo" didn't have any of those. Well, in the case of diabetes, "Solo" didn't have that. His prior nutrition would have prevented that. Cancer was iffy because Duo didn't have much access to the kind of tools needed to figure that one out.

Damn, there were so many out there. Ones from the A.D. era and ones that had cropped up since it had ended. It was making little sense.

In a risky move, "Solo" unaware of it, Duo had contacted Hilde through the _DragQueenS2_ profile. Hilde had responded that what was going on with "Solo" sounded a lot like what junkies went through when they went a long time without taking their drug of choice.

At first, Duo couldn't believe that Solo would be like a junkie. He had never seen him take a drug once. Once! What kind of substance would someone like him be addicted to in the first place? Those Project Goliath assholes had monitored him practically every second of his life since he was taken out of his tube. When could any substance have been introduced to him that would make him like this?

When he had confront Solo over it—not Solo, "Solo"!—Duo had learned that he had had many things injected into him from chicken pox and small pox to polio and scarlet fever. The only time he was given injections that weren't to inoculate him were vitamin supplements. Duo did find it odd that these supplements had a bluish color to it but that was probably some jackass' attempt to tease the blond.

When he wasn't trying to figure out what was going on with his partner, he was either getting them food or settling down to read those printed pages they had retrieved from Preventers headquarters.

The first thing that he started reading about involved the word MIRS. It was because the letters were capitalized that it had caught his attention back in the archives and he had printed out the document it had been a part of. He had no idea what it meant or how it was involved with Goliath but he figured he would be finding out soon.

MIRS, as he soon found out, stood for Memory Information Retrieval System. This system was actually a machine, one that was based on the principles of the ZERO system. The moment he read that, his heart almost froze and he had to remind himself that he needed his blood circulating in order to live.

But still, hadn't they left ZERO behind? What genius thought bringing that accursed program back was a good idea?

Well, as it turned out, it was the basis of what ZERO was that served as the basis for MIRS. As Duo was reminded, ZERO worked by sending information straight into the human brain, organizing and structuring it in a way that it allowed a person to see into the near future.

MIRS was the reverse of ZERO. Instead of putting information into the brain, it took information out of the brain. It circulated electricity through the brain and through this circulation it organized and structured the information so that a machine could read it. You could learn everything of a person's past with this machine. A person's life could be coded into binary and saved into a Word document.

What was more was a person didn't have to be alive in order for MIRS to take data out of you.

Duo had to stop reading after that. He couldn't help but picture a time long since past where he once cried over the body of a person who had happened to be his best friend, practically a brother in spirit if not blood. He could picture him leaving the body behind only for a group of men to descend on it and take the lifeless corpse away to be placed in a machine that would copy every little detail of the life the body experienced.

And when he put it together with what he learned from the first flashdrive…

… _data retrieved would be installed in a new prototype clone…_

Could it be that Solo, _his_ Solo, was somewhere inside this other Solo? That that was why his voice kept coming out of that mouth on various occasions? But if it was to be believed that only information deemed important was put into the super soldier prototype, why was the Solo that he knew making his sporadic appearances?

But it wasn't just his Solo that was in that head. There were all the other Solos, Solos who were placed in different environments, forced to grow up in them, then confiscated or kidnapped and had their brains zapped for every little experience they had had. Every single experience would be combed through and only those deemed to have significance or importance would be kept and the rest discarded like trash. Pick and choose what you like then put all these different experiences into one mind that wouldn't know any better.

A mind that would have lived so many lives but not remember a single one of them, retaining what it had learned in all those previous lives and putting them to good use. All without knowing where they had come from or even caring.

It was all centered on MIRS. The human cloning, the accelerated growth, the military training, and everything else would lose its value if it weren't for MIRS. MIRS which was a corrupted version of ZERO. It all fed back into each other.

But where did it all begin? The name Derrick Wallace came to mind but Duo wasn't sure that it was with him that this all began. Even if it was this Wallace guy that started Project Goliath, he had to get the idea from somewhere. He had to get the idea of MIRS from someplace.

The name Jaczynski showed up once again in the stuff about MIRS. Hmm, maybe he should find out who the hell this Jaczynski guy was. Now that he thought about it, Jaczynski's name, along with Wallace's, had been with an article that suggested making a program that sounded just like the ZERO system. Maybe if he found out who Jaczynski was, he'd find out about Wallace and how Project Goliath fit into all of this.

Looking up from the pages he had been so immersed with, he saw Solo standing nearby, looking at him uncomfortably. He grunted at the blond, inviting him to speak his mind.

"Have you…found anything?" Solo asked, his hands clenched together behind his back. It cast an impression of shyness, something that Duo was not used to seeing from someone who looked like his old friend. And he had forgotten the quotation marks earlier, hadn't he?

"Ever hear of MIRS?" he asked to take his mind off of it, patting the spot next to him, inviting the blond to take a seat.

"Solo" acquiesced and sat down, his back learning against the metal wall or their current living space. "I don't recognize it," "Solo" answered, giving the braided one his undivided attention.

"It's supposed to take information out of people's heads and store them on a computer," Duo summarized for him. "And taking what we read earlier from the first flashdrive, I think we can correctly assume that every clone they sent out into the world was put into MIRS."

"For what purpose?" "Solo" asked, his head tilting to a side curiously.

"Think about it this way," Duo began to explain. "Every clone was put into a different environment. Each one had different challenges and in order to survive in them, the clones would have to adapt to them. I think what the assholes were after were those survival strategies and once the clones had…done what they needed to do, they'd pick them up and use MIRS to copy those strategies."

"Then put them into me," Solo finished for him, looking a bit disturbed.

"Yeah," Duo agreed, slightly glad that Solo had taken the responsibility of putting that out there.

"I never told you this," Solo began to say. Duo perked up and listened carefully to what the blond was telling him. "But during my training, no matter what I did, it was always easy. Like I had done it before. Sometimes during physical tests and obstacle courses, my body would take over and I would perform actions that I had never done before."

Duo remained quiet, letting the blond get it all out. It was like Solo was figuring things out, rationalizing and comparing them to what he had learned so far.

"When….when we entered that dilapidated urban area," Solo continued, "it felt like I had been there before or at least someplace similar. I was so aware of my surroundings and my body was relaxing yet tensing and…and when I would look at you, I had this urge to want to touch you. To see if you were real. I don't know why I would want to do something like that."

Duo understood more than he cared to admit. When he had first seen him back at that base, he had wanted to do the same but once Solo here had acted differently from what he had expected, the feeling had disappeared. He was curious why Solo had waited until now to bring this up but the blond hadn't been this forthcoming before.

He was really beginning to see this guy as more of a human, just another soul making their way through life the best way he knew how.

He placed a comforting on the blond's shoulder and squeezed it, hoping to convey that Solo wasn't alone here. He at least had this survivor of the streets on his side.

"Have you ever felt this way before?" Solo asked him, looking at him beseechingly.

"I have," Duo answered, his throat dry.

"What does it mean?"

"It means…it means that you're human," Duo said, his voice becoming stronger with conviction. "No matter what anybody tells you, don't let them convince you otherwise. You have desires of your own, you think, you breathe, you are able to appreciate those you trust. There are some people in this world who take that all for granted. So what if you came from a test tube; I've known people who were born the normal way and they are worse than animals. The guys who've put you in this position, they're more inhuman than anything they could possibly create.

"You…you're Solo. You're a guy who's just trying to find meaning for his existence and you're not the first. There have been so many before you and a lot of them didn't find the answer to that either. So long as you don't forget who you are here," he patted Solo's chest, just over where his heart would be, "then you'll be okay."

"How do you know all this?" Solo wondered.

Duo smiled wryly. "I had a good teacher."

Solo returned with what looked like a grimace but seeing the effort he was putting into it, Duo thought that he was trying to smile.

"Less effort there, don't try to give yourself a hernia," Duo told him, his eyes twinkling with mirth.

* * *

><p>Heero's fingers rapidly tapped the keyboard, his eyes never leaving the monitor in front of him as he searched for any clue, no matter how small it was, that might lead him to Duo. So far nothing had come up but he hadn't been surprised about that.<p>

He, Heero, was a master of computers, able to hack into any system at will from even the most outdated of electronic equipment and he used those talents to hide himself in plain sight during the wars. If he needed a false identity, with a few strokes of the keys he had one ready to be used. He had created many fake identities over the years and he used them without hesitation when he needed to hide from enemy eyes.

That was how he could disappear, through data. Duo, however, could disappear physically. That was a talent that could not be reproduced no matter how much practice you got. It was something, he found, that you were either a natural at or you were the embodiment. With enough practice, you could get close but you would eventually make some mistake that would out you. From his history, Heero knew that Duo would only be found if he wanted to be found.

Because of that, it was making a hard job so much more harder. Heero enjoyed a challenge every now and then but he had his limits. The stunts Duo was pulling now went beyond those limits. When Heero was beyond his limits, he tended to favor the tried and true method of shooting first and asking questions later.

As you can see, he was quite frustrated.

The recent incident of those deformed humans had made him pause. He liked to think of all possibilities that there were to be had and eliminate each one that had the least support or lowest chance of occurring. The fact that he had not even considered something like that happening threw him off his game and that further fueled his irritation.

The evidence was mounting that the Preventers weren't the only ones searching for Duo. The group that had been using that allegedly abandoned Alliance base were also trying to find their AWOL agent though the reason eluded Heero.

Chances were that these men were trying to get back the flashdrives that Trowa and Duo had recovered. Exposure to the rest of the world had not been something they wanted. It was too late since they now had both of the flashdrives but as Heero began to see it, maybe it wasn't the flashdrives they were after.

Of the men they had apprehended on Earth, none of them had mentioned anything about the flashdrives meaning they didn't know about them in the first place. Interrogation was ongoing but these men were proving hard to crack according to Une. What they had managed to get out of them wasn't very informative.

They had no idea of who was in charge of this mysterious operation, what they were after, or what their purpose for being was.

Most groups the Preventers dealt with had an anti-government theme. It was all about rebellion and inciting war. These men, however, were not giving that theme off. They still believed they were military and acted as such, like the armies of Earth and the Colonies hadn't been disbanded.

Heero had not yet encountered such men before and it made him all the more determined to crack this case wide open.

The key to that laid with Duo and he couldn't find Duo. He was failing and that was something that was unacceptable with him.

He noted that he had received an e-mail and he paused in his work to open it, finding that the autopsy reports were finished. Hn, he'd take a look at it later after a little more searching. If nothing on Duo came up, he'd look at the report and share the findings with the others. Wufei should still be at Hilde's scrapyard and Trowa was out looking into some tips. He was sure nothing would come from it other than them finding out that a Duo sighting was nothing more than a phantom.

Still, it helped to cover all his bases and he didn't want to half his manpower by keeping one of them with Quatre to make sure he healed. They had work to do and they couldn't afford to rein in a portion of their resources just because Quatre refused to cooperate with the doctors.

Quatre had standing orders not to move from his bed unless it was absolutely necessary. Going to the toilet was included in that. He didn't need Quatre aggravating his injury and the sooner the blond was giving a clean bill of health, the sooner they would be back to full strength.

About an hour later and with nothing to show for it, Heero decided to take a break from the Duo search and take a look at the autopsy report. He had heard that Une had brought in a few of the more medically trained agents to assist in it. That way, the more important portions would be discussed first and anything else that was tedious would be glossed over. Sally Po was allegedly one of those agents and if she was indeed involved with it, Heero could depend on getting a short and sweet report.

His eyebrows rose as he read it. The others would have to be informed of this. If the levels of Lyrithine were correct, perhaps there was a way to track down the mysterious group also after Duo and take them out of play.

Another e-mail arrived just as he was coming to a decision. Without delay, he opened it and sat straight up in his seat. Une wanted a video conference with all of them as soon as possible. Something on the recently acquired flashdrive worried her greatly and she wanted to speak with them over a secure line.

He typed in a reply, asking for her to wait two hours so he could bring Wufei and Trowa in and to set up a secure line. Not waiting for a reply that he knew wasn't coming, he began to contact his two out-in-the-field agents to issue his orders.


	16. Chapter 16

Author's Note: More plot, more moving forward, and it all comes slowly. For those pulling their hair, wanting to know everything…you'll have to wait a little bit longer to get all your answers. That's not to say you won't get some answers in this chapter, because you will, but you won't get all the answers. You'll be bald before all is said and done. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Warning: language

Chapter 16

An urgent call, telling him to come to Winner's room immediately, had Wufei scowling from irritation. He was in the midst of a stake out and that was where he was in his element. Waiting and studying his opponent was where he excelled though even he admitted that he could be rash and irresponsible at times, charging in headfirst when he should study first instead.

But when it was Une ordering you, you had no choice but to obey. It was the chain of command and Wufei only violated that in challenging or extreme conditions. This was neither of those so after tersely ordering his subordinate agents to continue watching the scrapyard and inform him of unexpected turn of events, he had returned to the Preventers' base on this Colony.

He found that he was the last to arrive, Winner obviously being there first while Yuy was finishing up setting up a secure line and Barton was tending to a few things their injured comrade required.

Barton nodded at him in greeting while Winner spared him a small smile. Yuy didn't bother to turn to acknowledge him, more intent on what he was doing than anything. Wufei took up a space against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest as he waited for this impromptu meeting to begin.

Not even a minute after he had entered the room, Yuy finished securing their line and Une's person flashed onto the laptop's monitor. Yuy settled the portable computer near Winner so that the blond agent would be better able to see the screen. That and he would bear the brunt of any wrath the Director might throw their way.

"_Is the line secure?_" Une inquired immediately and Wufei almost raised an eyebrow. She seemed a bit troubled, almost as if she had just been told something either very sensitive or very bad.

He already knew that this was not going to something he was going to want to hear.

"Affirmative," Yuy answered.

"_Have you all been informed of the autopsy reports over the bodies that were retrieved?_" Une pressed.

"I had just received the report," Yuy again answered thought Wufei thought he heard some discomfort there.

"_You'll have to inform them as we go on_," Une said. Wufei was really becoming curious over what this was all about. "_The techies have begun analyzing the data from the flashdrive you recovered and I'm afraid that we may have stumbled into something big._"

"What is it Director?" Winner asked as he shifted in his bed, trying to get comfortable. The blond had probably already sensed that something was up and was trying to brace himself for it in any way that he could.

"_We've all been underestimating what was going on in that Alliance base_," Une told them. "_According to the information of the flashdrive, we've found out that someone has been engaging in human experimentation and cloning. The goal is to create a new breed of soldier, one that is manufactured and mass produced to fight future wars._"

"That's…that's insane!" Quatre exclaimed, appalled. Wufei noted how both Yuy and Barton retained cool features but could not stop the slight widening of their eyes. Wufei assumed that he was probably the same though more outraged at this news.

Had people not learned their lesson yet? How many people needed to die before humanity got tired of fighting? And for what? A rock floating in a vast expanse of empty space with a few metal boxes accompanying it?

"_You'll hear no argument from me_," Une agreed with Winner's emotional response. "_However, we're beginning to connect the dots with the data from the first flashdrive._"

"What dots have you connected so far?" Barton asked.

"_So far, we know how they plan to create these super soldiers._"

"How?" Barton pressed. "If we know what materials they're using, we can track these people down through those and put an end to this experiment of theirs."

"_What we've been able to determine so far is that they've already created multiple clones but here is where we come across a problem. They've sent these clones to various locations on Earth and in the Colonies. Each one with a different environment and each one having to endure and survive in them._"

"What would be the point of that?" Winner asked, confused.

"_That would be where the MIRS machine comes in_," Une explained. "_The clones were allowed to live, and in some cases prosper, before they were hunted down and either abducted or 'retrieved.' From there, all their memories would be copied by MIRS and sorted through before being planted into the brain of a prototype solider._

"_The prototype would be another clone but one who has been improved through genetic manipulation and conceived through the test tube process of conception. While in the tank phase, the clone would be fed nutrients and high levels of the drug Lyrithine. Once 'born,' this prototype would be trained in martial and weapons combat, which may or may not include Mobile Suit piloting._"

"Almost like us," Yuy stated. "I'm guessing that those bodies that were recovered were 'failed' prototypes?" What? Where did that come from? Now Wufei's attention was on Yuy.

"You mean…" Winner gasped as his eyes widened. "That's…that's…_horrible_."

"Have they managed to create a stable prototype?" Barton demanded, nearly leaning over Winner to better look Une in the eye.

"_Unfortunately, they have_," Une said. "_Fortunately, we have been able to get a physical description. A tall male of Caucasian ancestry ranging from 6'5" to 6'8", blond hair, green eyes, and resembles having an age in the early twenties. Growth accelerants were used during the test tube process to cut down the time it would take to make it._"

"I…I think I saw that prototype," Winner said softly.

"_You have? When?_" Une demanded sharply.

"He was with Duo," Winner said. "They left the moment we were distracted with the…failed prototypes. I think he was the one to knock me out."

"Maxwell is with this abomination?" Wufei asked incredulously.

"Duo…he…he spoke as if he had known him from somewhere," Winner replied, his fists gripping the bedsheets. "He told me that he didn't want to lose him again."

"Agent Nightmare has placed himself in his wanted status for this prototype?" Yuy asked, frowning deeply at Winner.

"_From the sounds of it, he's attached to the prototype_," Une said. "_This will make this all the more harder._"

"What do you mean?" Winner asked.

"_Regardless of its appearance, this prototype is a weapon and an illegal one at that_," Une stated. "_I am ordering you to destroy it by any means necessary._"

"Understood," Yuy replied.

"No! Not understood!" Winner interrupted, appalled.

"_What's the problem Agent Mirage?_" Une questioned.

"We're talking about a human being!" Winner protested. "So what if he was born in a test tube? He's human just like everyone in this room!"

"Mirage, we are trained soldiers whose purpose was to spread chaos on Earth and enable a dictator to usurp power," Yuy said. "We are weapons as well."

"So why not terminate us too?" Winner demanded. "If we're weapons then aren't we illegal too?"

"_The current law exempts you under _ex post facto," Une said. "_No one would tolerate executing a Gundam pilot over such logic_."

"So why him?" Winner raged. "How's he different?"

"_Because the public does not know he exists_," Une stated flatly. "_This prototype is a weapon regardless of your opinion, Agent Mirage. All his memories belong to others who are long dead. His single purpose is warfare and his creators have shown that they are willing to go to any lengths to get him back._"

"How'd you come to that conclusion?" Winner demanded.

"_When they unleashed those failed prototypes in a public domain_," Une said coldly. "_So long as that prototype exists, they will endanger the people we are to protect. Mirage, would you have the same reservations if it was a beam cannon they were trying to repossess? This super soldier is intended for war and just who do you think will want him? If a terrorist group got their hands on him, can you image what they would be capable of?_"

"What about the Lyrithine?" Yuy interrupted. "This prototype was immersed in it during their early developmental stages. Lyrithine is not something that you stop taking after constant exposure. The withdrawal symptoms will eventually kill it given enough time."

"_You make a valid point, Agent Trump_," Une agreed. "_The fact that it is still alive and no signs of these symptoms showing up troubles me. I don't want to take any chances. Remember agents, the men responsible for this project don't need the prototype alive. All they need is a corpse and do you think they care if he looks human or not? According to what has been found out, that answer is no. And we do not know if they have the capacity to create more of these soldiers. It would be luck that the necessary equipment was back at that base but I'm not holding my breath on that._"

"Do you know anything about the person in charge? Perhaps we can predict what they'll do next," Barton suggested.

"_We are having trouble with that as well_," Une answered. "_The same names from before, Sebastian Jaczynski and Derrick Wallace keep popping up. We have found information on Jaczynski but he vanished nearly twenty years ago. Wallace was missing even before that._"

"Did you say Derrick Wallace?" Yuy asked. Receiving a nod from Une, Yuy said, "I think I might have met him once. During my training for Wing, I was exposed to Lyrithine. Dr. J put an end to that but he was most angry at a man he called Wallace. Soon after, this Wallace was not seen by anyone."

"He went underground?" Barton suggested. "Do you think Jaczynski was the same?"

"If we don't know the answer to that, shouldn't we instead focus more of our energies into finding Maxwell?" Wufei asked quietly. "As Winner said, Maxwell is in the company of this prototype and these new opponents of ours will also be after him as well due to that connection. It'll allow us to take out two birds with one stone: capture the prototype and take Maxwell into custody."

"Wufei!" Winner protested.

"_That sounds like the best course of action_," Une agreed. "_I will have others try to trace this group through their purchases of Lyrithine. As you all know, it's illegal so finding anyone who ever sold them the drug will help us to flush them out. I'll also have those financial records you recovered in the first flashdrive cross checked with other records to see if we can't nail their suppliers._"

"I'll search for any transportation of Lyrithine," Yuy volunteered. "I may find some illegal storage and take out some of their resources as well. If we make them desperate enough, we'll force them into making more and more mistakes."

"Should we expand our queries to include Wallace and Jaczynski?" Trowa asked.

"_You won't but I'll assign that to other agents_," Une said. "_I want you all to focus the majority of your resources on finding our rogue agent and eliminating that prototype. The last thing anyone wants to do is indirectly provide a group of radicals with a new weapon. No matter what you feel on this one, I would rather err on the safe side and not endanger the people we're sworn to protect. You have your orders gentlemen. I hope that you do not fail this time._"

Though Une shut off the feed, the tension in the room remained. Of them all, it was Winner who was the most distressed. Wufei believed that Yuy had agreed with Une's assessment to terminate this experimental soldier but Barton was once again eluding him. Wufei would admit that he too was in a gray area. If you were charged to destroy all weapons and were confronted with one that was human in appearance, right down to their genetics, would this person be considered a weapon and have to be destroyed as well?

Wufei knew that Winner was self-conscious about the fact that he had been birthed in a test tube and probably felt some camaraderie with the prototype. But right now, it was a liability. He was almost thankful that Winner had to be restricted to this room. If he was out there and encountered Maxwell again, Wufei had no doubt that the blond would look the other way and allow this chase to continue.

But Barton remained an unknown and Wufei made a mental note to keep an eye on him just in case.

"So, Lyrithine? Is there anything you can tell us about your experience with it?" Barton spoke up, his green eyes on Yuy. "It explains your feats of strength, how you're able to fix a broken leg from an awkward angle, and it just may explain your high level of endurance."

"What else is there to say," Yuy shrugged. "We all know about it, what it can do to the human body. I fail to see where this will aid us in discovering Duo."

"I was thinking more about the withdrawal," Barton remarked casually. "Since this prototype has been immersed in the substance, and knowing what going cold turkey does to a Lyrithine addict, I highly doubt that he too is immune from the process. He was most likely given regular doses after he was released from his tube."

"What are you trying to get at?" Wufei demanded.

"I knew someone who was a Lyrithine addict," Barton stated. "What he went through wasn't pretty. The withdrawal hadn't begun until he went about a week, a week and a half without it. That amount of time has pretty much passed by now and whether we want to admit it or not, this prototype has human qualities such as tissue and organs that work the same way as ours.

"And when you think about it, it also gives these men control over him," Barton added. "If you want a super soldier to stay loyal to you, you give them a reason to remain loyal. Having the ability to end their life in an extremely painful manner would do such a thing. Lyrithine endows you with superhuman strength and provides a leash."

Yuy nodded. "Dr. J had me detox under heavy surveillance. According to him, I had gotten dangerously close to becoming addicted. Two more doses and I would have had to live the rest of my life on it."

"How many were you given?" Winner asked softly.

"About a handful," Yuy answered. "Five, maybe six. Comparative to others, it wasn't much but that is how powerful it is. Other drugs can addict you with a single hit, Lyrithine takes over your life completely and subtly. The compound comes from an element that was never meant to enter the human body in the first place, that's what Dr. J told me."

"We'll postpone this for a while; we should be getting back to work," Barton said. "We should focus more on finding Duo and the prototype and let Une try to find our weapon developers in the meantime."

"Continue checking out tips Trowa, Wufei check up on the agents staking out the scrapyard," Yuy commanded. "Quatre, you're still off duty for the time being."

"That's not much of a change," Winner grumbled crossing his arms over his chest.

* * *

><p>It had been busy this morning so Hilde could not be blamed for not immediately attending to her latest customer. During the first lull of the day, she had taken the opportunity to do a little accounting, putting in the latest purchases and checking to see what new items had been dumped recently. The latter was harder to do because people would go anywhere to dump off junk they deemed worthless. However, sometimes people came in wanting to know if she had something they were looking for and it got too annoying to tell them that no, she did not know if she had what they were looking for but she could go out and check.<p>

The scrap business was nothing like retail and taking inventory of everything would be a nightmare. There were things here Hilde didn't even know she had due to the fact that they were buried under hundreds if not thousands of pounds worth of junk and scraps.

So when she looked up and found an elderly looking man who looked impeccably clean, she almost jumped in her seat, startled. She hadn't heard him come in and not tending to someone immediately was not a good business practice. Especially if you wanted returning customers.

"How can I help you sir?" she greeted cheerfully, getting up from her chair and approaching the man.

Something she noticed immediately was how bright his blue eyes were yet there was a coldness to them that would put to shame the chill of space. Then, despite the fact he had white hair, his face was remarkable unwrinkled with an almost youthfulness to it. His dress was something that was completely out of the ordinary. She had never seen anyone come into her office in a dress shirt or slacks and those horn-rimmed glasses he wore certainly looked expensive.

He definitely had some cash on him. Best to try and make up for her lapse and serve him the best way she could.

"Yes, you may young lady," the man answered her with a very clinical tone. "I lost something the other day and I have heard that you are the one to go to for such things."

"I don't know where you heard that but I'll try to help you in any way that I can," she promised the man.

"Shall we go outside?" the man suggested. "This building is a bit stuffy to me."

"Sure, we can go out," Hilde agreed. "If you'll follow me?"

She didn't need to give any further prompting as the man nodded and followed her out. He looked at all the piles of scraps and metal, his eyes analyzing everything with the same clinical air that he spoke with. Hilde was a bit creeped out by it but a buck was a buck and you tended to get someone like this every once in a while. Best to suck it up and do your best, girl.

"You have a wide selection here," the man commented, his hands behind his back. "I'm surprised that I haven't come here until now."

"Well, you never know what we have," Hilde told him. "Has something caught your attention yet?"

"Quite a few things have," the man answered her. "However, there is something in particular that I'm looking for."

Christ, another one of those. She hated this type of customer because they made things so much harder than they ought to be. Why couldn't they come in here open to suggestion and not so dead set on this one particular thing that they must have? This was a scrapyard! She had no absolute idea of what all they all had! Hell, her father who once ran the place hadn't known everything they had out here! Like she had pointed out earlier, people dumped stuff here all the time and it was incredibly difficult if not impossible to keep up with it all.

"Well, I can check around to see if we have it and if we can't find it now, I promise to let you know if I do," she told him. "So what is it you're looking for specifically?"

"I believe you've seen it before," the man assured her. "It's tall, has blond colored hair, and green eyes the shade of emerald."

Hilde paused. She…had met someone resembling that description before. Not long ago in fact. And hadn't Duo mentioned that there were these people who were after him?

"I'm afraid that if you're looking for someone, no one by that description works here," Hilde said professionally. "I'll also add I've never met someone like that either."

"I know differently," the man stated as he took off his glasses, wiping the lens with a small white cloth that he pulled out of his pocket. "You met it the other day."

"It? What do you mean it?" Hilde questioned, narrowing her eyes at the man. "Look, are you here to look for something, _sir_, or are you going to waste my time?"

"You know there are Preventers surveying you right this moment?" the man asked instead, putting his glasses back on. "They believe that you might know something. I know you do know something so let's skip the chitchat, shall we?"

"I'm a busy person, Mr.…" she trailed off, unsure of his name. Now that she thought about it, he hadn't told her his name…

"Wallace," the man introduced himself.

"Wallace," she repeated. "I have a business to run and I don't have time to play stupid games, okay? Are you going to purchase something or not?"

"No, I don't believe I will," Wallace answered her.

"Then you know where the gate is? Good." Spinning on her heel, she began marching towards her office.

"I know you met Solo," Wallace called after her. She stopped in her tracks as she remembered that Duo had called his partner that. "I also know that you happen to have an opportunity to save its life."

Again with the it… "What are you saying?" she asked warily, looking back at him.

"My guess is that right now, Solo isn't faring too well," Wallace said idly. "I would say that he's experiencing muscle spasms and random bouts of shooting pain. The symptoms are only going to get worse over time. If not treated in time, Solo will die. I am offering you a chance to save its life. The choice is up to you."

She didn't like this man, this Wallace. He was scummy, really, really scummy. But what she really didn't like was what he was saying. Was he trying to say that Solo was sick or something?

"I'll give you twenty-four hours to make up your mind and no more," Wallace informed her. "I would be quick, though. Lyrithine withdrawal is not the most pleasant thing to experience. Keep that in mind."

With a casual gait, Wallace left her, heading for the gate. Hilde was just glad that he was leaving…but also more than a bit concerned about what he had said to her. Lyrithine withdrawal? What did that have to do with anything? She had heard stories but…

This called for a little investigating but she would send word to Duo via that ridiculous online name.

But why did it feel like she was getting in over her head?

* * *

><p>Farrell barely glanced as Wallace got into the car.<p>

"Well?" the Commander asked gruffly.

"It won't be long," Wallace commented as he fastened his seat belt. "Despite her attempts to bluff, she does know about the prototype. Even if she doesn't know where it is, she knows how to get in touch with the one hiding it from us."

"You're sure about this?" Farrell raised an eyebrow at the scientist, skeptical. The man's plans to get their weapon back had all blown up in his face time and again. What was to say that this one was going to work?

"This girl is our ticket," Wallace stated, not looking at the Commander. "Even if she says no, then she becomes expendable. Nothing will force our braided interloper to poke his head out than to check on someone he cares about."

"So if nothing comes out of this, you'll kill her?" Farrell asked.

"She was going to be terminated regardless of the outcome," Wallace shrugged. "This way, at least, she can be of use before we reach that stage."

"Anything for your science project," Farrell scoffed as he started the car.

"I am beginning to think your faith in my work is waning," Wallace commented. "You stand to gain a lot from my success, Commander. I would think that you would be more supportive of my endeavors."

"Derrick, don't you think this is going too far?" Farrell pressed. "Couldn't now be a good time to cut our losses and return underground? The amount of exposure, it's…"

"We're not children anymore," Wallace snapped at the officer, betraying some anger. "We're not playing pretend, running around like idiots with our sticks and sports balls. We do not have the option of saying 'I'm tired, let's stop for a bit' anymore. I would also appreciate it if you refrain from using my first name."

"You're not the kid I used to know anymore," Farrell muttered to himself, almost mournfully.

"I grew up, Douglas," Wallace stated. "I'm beginning to question whether or not you have."

"I would appreciate it if you refrained from using my first name as well," Farrell mocked the doctor.

"Apparently, you haven't," Wallace observed.

"Go to hell," Farrell snarled.

* * *

><p>Duo was staring at the face on his monitor. He had managed to track down a photo of the guy he knew as Sebastian Jaczynski but it had been tough as hell to do that. You had no idea what internet backroads he had to traverse to find it and now that he had, he had to admit that he had never seen anyone like this person.<p>

The last known photo of Jaczynski and he looked like a guy in his late thirties, early forties. The photo in question had been done in celebration as his first research project, specifically one that he had been in charge of so there were a few other people standing next to him.

However, the nose of one of those men looked familiar. Add some mushroom cap hair and Duo would have said that he was looking at a replica of old Professor G. Yeah, he could never forget that nose. Now if he had a scar then he would be a shoe-in for the professor. But back to Jaczynski, no, he did not get what somebody like him had to do with Project Goliath.

If anything, according to a caption, the project this group of people was working on when this picture was taken was an engineering one. Nothing about biology was related to it at all.

Well, this seemed like a dead end.

He glanced around at the people who were mingling around him, speaking quietly or reading over in secluded corners. Yeah, he was in another library but compared to the one in Sanc, this was a pathetic comparison to it. It was much smaller and more dungy against the more open and bright library where he had first learned about Goliath.

He almost missed it, back on Earth, where everything was more spacious. Here, everything was more cramped, elbow room a luxury.

But Duo was sure that no one would think to keep an eye out on this place. Why would a wanted person like him be found in a library of all places? That's the question the guys chasing him and Solo and the Preventers would ask themselves and he was counting on their negative answer to check this place out.

Of course, that didn't mean that he wasn't keeping a look out. It was small mistakes like getting spotted in a place like this that got you caught in the first place. If his need to surf the net for more answers hadn't been great, he would have stuck back in the place he and Solo had holed up in.

He minimized the search on Jaczynski, returning to the one on Derrick Wallace that wasn't going anywhere. He checked over what he had done before minimizing that search too. Wallace had been a guy that knew how to hide his tracks. That or he had just abandoned everything and not taken anything when he had gone underground. Or he was dead. The dead left no trails that weren't planted by others to throw you off theirs. Duo had a feeling that this Wallace guy was alive and well but there was no evidence to prove that.

Still, the absence of evidence was not the evidence of absence. Wallace had to have left some clue behind or screwed up at some other time.

Leaning back in his seat and stretching to relieve some stiffness, he popped his neck and hunched back over the keyboard, checking up on any e-mails that might have come. By simply communicating to Hilde through _DragQueenS2_, he was risking exposing himself. Odds were Preventers would check up on all recipients of e-mails Hilde had sent out and any that had an overload of them would be suspicious.

But Duo could also be paranoid. Still, he didn't want to take any chances.

He was a bit surprised to see that Hilde had sent him an e-mail. This was unprecedented but he was sure that Hilde would only try to get in touch with him like this if something important was up. Nonetheless, he did a scan on the e-mail to make sure there wasn't any nasty surprise in it.

The last thing he needed was the Preventers spiking one of Hilde's messages.

It was clean so he felt a bit safer to open it up. Almost automatically, he frowned as he read the e-mail. Someone had come up to Hilde asking about Solo? What? Some old guy? Wait, who would know about Solo? He had a feeling that it wasn't the Preventers and if it wasn't them…

It had to be the Project Goliath guys. They were getting Hilde involved now. But how did they know to go to her? Well, there was that attack at Poodle's. Odds were they spotted her there sitting with Solo and followed her back to the scrapyard. Damn it, he hadn't wanted to get her involved in this shit!

Reading the message further, his frown deepened. Lyrithine withdrawal? Why had that guy mentioned that to her? Solo was going to die? Twenty-four hours to respond?

He opened up a new window, doing a quick search on Lyrithine withdrawal. As he read what the list of symptoms for withdrawal were, his chest began to tighten in anxiety. Solo was experiencing just that: the muscle spasms and twitches, the random bouts of pain, the sweating, everything. And they were only going to get worse…

But why Lyrithine? Why would Solo have that in his system? Didn't he know how dangerous…?

No, he wouldn't. In fact, those Project Goliath guys could have pumped him full of anything and Solo wouldn't have known better. But Lyrithine? …well, he had seen Solo perform feats of strength that shouldn't normally be possible. Pulling a helicopter out of aerial stability, twisting the barrel of a shotgun, standing up to that large freak of a Solo clone…

Lyrithine could explain that and the symptoms he was experiencing now due to a lack of it…

He needed more confirmation. Just taking it at some guy's word, particularly a guy who was trying to hunt him down, was not amendable to survival. Fortunately, he knew someone very knowledgeable in the medical community. Unfortunately, she was a Preventer.

How the hell was he going to get in touch with Sally Po when she along with every member of the Preventers were chasing him? And here was the key part, how was he going to learn what he wanted without endangering himself and Solo?


	17. Chapter 17

Author's Note: Not much I can say about this chapter so enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Warning: language

Chapter 17

To say that Agent Water, also known as Sally Po, was intrigued by these…unusual dead bodies was kind of an understatement. She was not alone in this and due to her expertise on the human body, specifically those of soldiers who operated differently from the norm, she had been brought in to see if she could add anything to the knowledge gained so far.

Sally was most interested in the high levels of Lyrithine that was found in the bodies. There was so much of those crystals of Lyrithium, the element from which this drug was derived, were found in the kidneys. In her professional opinion, had these being's not been terminated beforehand, they were going to die soon anyway.

The Lyrithium was acting in ways similar to ethylene glycol and she knew through the experience of others that ethylene glycol poisoning was not fun. Sure the stuff tasted sweet on the way down but once it began wreaking havoc on your body, it was the most painful experience you could imagine.

Since such high levels of Lyrithium in a human body had never been recorded before, most of it was speculation on her part. She couldn't help but feel sorry about these former individuals whose bodily forms had been warped by the element.

She also felt anger at the people who had dared to do this in the first place. Had they no decency as human beings? Were they immune to the suffering of others all so they could gain scientific knowledge and make a name for themselves? Because that was the only kind of person she could envision doing this.

Who had these three been before they had been changed? Had either of them been someone's son? A brother? A cousin? Or were they an orphan? Someone living out on the street with no place to call their own? It was so tragic that someone could consider their lives less than theirs for no other reason than their socioeconomic status.

But this was just another reason why she was in the Preventers. She wasn't just here to stop radicals and terrorists from instigating more wars but to also put more integrity into the pursuit of medical science. Humans rarely regulated themselves, no matter what it was they were involved in. While she herself liked freedom in whatever research she herself was involved in, she also knew that restraint was a must.

Contrary to what most thought, science was all about disproving something, not proving it. How could you say you knew what something was if you didn't know what it wasn't? Many a scientific statement had been torn apart and rendered moot because the research had tried to prove their hypothesis was right. One thing that was always forgotten was that scientific studies were replicated and if the results from the first study weren't repeated, doubts would result and eventually all your work would be cast aside and all your research discarded.

A whole life's work down the drain leaving the research with nothing but a bad name, an example of what not to do to future generations.

Oh, she would love to be there when they nailed the bastards behind all this. Her anger was only fueled as she learned more about the details, how these individuals were made to be super soldiers for a war that had not and would not be allowed to happen.

It was all a waste and as she berated those behind, she mourned those who were sacrificed for it.

It was fortunate that things like these happened rarely. Otherwise, Sally Po would have given humanity up as a lost cause and go into seclusion to escape the insanity. But she was a strong person, being a woman was only incidental. She cared nothing about gender politics so long as you were willing and able to do what you claimed you were able to do.

Other than that she was easy to please despite being a slave driver of the staff that was under her authority. Only the best when it came to her division because the Preventers demanded the best.

And now it was the best of the best taking on this new case. It was obvious that large amounts of Lyrithine were involved and now the problem was finding out where it came from and from there where it was going. She wasn't talking about fake companies here either; she was talking about physical locations. Money transfers were the key to that.

The Preventers already had a list of various drug suppliers on the Earth and in the Colonies, a list that held confirmed and suspected suppliers. It was only a matter of whittling it down to those who had could get their hands on Lyrithine and then finding how large their shipments were.

Nothing too hard but Sally really wanted to nail these guys if only to bring some sense of justice to this. If only she didn't sound like Wufei in his early days when it came to wording it in her head.

She was going over all the reports and autopsies, trying to piece together just what could cause a person to do this to another human being. More stuff was coming out of that second flashdrive they had retrieved recently and from what little she knew, it was only making her hate these people more and more.

So it was welcomed when her direct line began buzzing. She needed to take her mind off these atrocities, maybe look at something else for a bit. Anymore and she felt she just might lose any appetite she could have as well as her faith in humanity.

"Agent Water speaking," she said into the phone, not glancing at the vid feed. It was a black screen, telling her that whoever was calling her wasn't using a vidphone.

"_Sally, I got something I need to ask you about._"

"Duo?" she exclaimed, sitting ramrod straight in her seat. Well, if there was anything that was going to get her mind off of the stuff on her desk, it was going to have to be the latest addition to the Preventers' most wanted list.

"_Surprised? I am too but listen, now's not the time to get chitchatty—_"

"You're damn right about that!" Sally agreed, her voice just _slightly_ raised. "What do you think you're doing? You know we have agents looking for you around the clock. Why aren't you turning yourself in? Why _haven't_ you turned yourself in?"

"'_Cause I've been there, done that, took some photos, and not eager to check in again_," Duo replied. "_It's too long of a story and I'm not going to take a lot of time because I know you're going to be tracing this call if you haven't already._" Well, that was actually a bright idea. Why wasn't she tracing the call? Before she could try and signal someone, Duo was speaking again. "_I know that it'll only take ninety seconds for you to trace me so I'm giving you eighty-five to give me some info._"

"Why are you even bothering to call me?" Sally wondered into the phone.

"_Because I know that no matter the situation, you won't turn your back on someone who's sick,_" Duo stated.

Sally didn't restrain a grimace though her concern for the person Duo was mentioning, most likely himself, was already perked. Yes, Duo had hit the nail on the head but maybe she could turn it around.

"Is it you?" she asked. "I can try to coach you now so long as you can get to a hospital for further treatment."

"_Ain't me, Sally, it's someone I know. I've done some research myself so I know that it's not a disease they're suffering with_," Duo said. "_They're…on something. I'll give you what they've told me and I need you to be honest and tell what you think they've been taking._"

"You should take this person to a hospital Duo," Sally told him reprovingly. "If they're overdosing, they need immediate medical attention."

"_Just listen to me for a sec. What is someone taking if they have muscle trembles, spasms, or whatever they're called, lots of sweating, um…oh wait, random bursts of pain that come out of nowhere…I think there's something else but I can't think of it right now. Does that mean anything to you?_"

It just so happened that Sally had been going over Lyrithine addiction and withdrawal so the symptoms Duo was describing automatically made her think of that. The sweat was something that happened in any substance withdrawal but the muscle spasms and random bouts of pain were certainly what occurred in Lyrithine withdrawal. However she needed maybe one more thing to clarify it.

"What can you tell me about the spasms?" she asked. "Let me put it this way, though. Are the spasms located to a specific part of the body for short amount of time then transferred to another part while the rest of the body is left alone?"

Silence on the other end and she held her breath. Had he hung up? What was she talking about, there was no dial tone yet. He was taking precious seconds trying to figure this out but at least it allowed her to listen in on the other's surroundings. It was quiet so maybe he was either in a very quiet place or an antique phone booth. Those things did exist but finding them was another thing altogether.

"_Now that I think about it, it's kinda like that_," Duo said at last. "_An arm trembles here, then a leg, the chest…but the switching is speeding up. There are times when the spams are focused in one place but they're moving all around so fast that it looks like the body is shaking._"

"I'll have to get back to you on this but I think your friend is going into severe withdrawal," Sally told him.

"_Severe withdrawal of what?_" Duo demanded.

Sally paused for a second, debating whether she should say it or not but she had taken the Hippocratic oath. Do no harm. "Lyrithine," she said. "Duo, your friend needs to go to a hospital immediately. If not the ones on this Colony, then take them to the Preventers. When you do, be sure to tell them how much your friend has taken."

"_So you're up here too, huh. Must be for the freaks._" Sally paled as she realized that Duo had picked up on her slip. But maybe it would encourage him to come in; Duo had a very antagonistic relationship with any doctor he came across except her. He once alluded to a man with a mushroom hairdo turning him off all medical staff and to this day Sally hadn't figured out who he was talking about. "_I bet you found a lot of Lyrithine in them, the same amount my friend has I bet. Can you tell me what I can do to get rid of this crap or something that can ease it?_"

"The only way to get rid of Lyrithine is for the body to expel it itself and the only thing that can ease Lyrithine withdrawal symptoms is more Lyrithine," Sally said. "That's another reason why it's illegal. But Duo, listen to me. Get your friend some medical care _now_."

A dial tone was her answer. Her eighty-five seconds were up. Damn it. She placed the phone back on its receiver and pinched the bridge of her nose. Gundam pilots were always a pain in the ass to work with. Then again, so was she so this was probably some karma coming back to bite her in the ass.

She didn't know if anything she had told him would help Duo but she knew she needed to report this back with Une and maybe Heero. She hadn't tried to trace the call but they were all dealing with an agent…more like former agent and he knew all about how they operated and what they were capable of doing. The ultimate nightmare for them to face.

Whether Duo was more of a nightmare than what await her when Une found out about this was debatable. Picking up the phone, she dialed in Une's number.

* * *

><p>Duo had put some space between himself and the phone booth he had used but he was in a bit of a foul mood. This was one of those cases where he had wished he hadn't been proven right. His suspicions were confirmed but it wasn't the kind that he had wanted supported.<p>

Was he going to have to watch the guy who looked like an older version of his mentor, who even spoke like him on occasion, who he had witnessed die from a plague-like disease, suffer slowly and painfully like any ordinary junkie? Watching Solo die once had been terrible and that word was an understatement. There were no words that could accurately describe what he had felt as he watched those once lively and foolhardy green eyes close for the last time.

What he did know was that he wasn't going to let it happen again. He wouldn't allow it!

But how was he going to get his hands on Lyrithine? And how much would he need to get Solo back into shape? He knew that some hospitals had some but that was only for those near death and even then it wasn't much. Just enough to get some stability. And since this was the L2 Cluster, the hospitals here wouldn't have any. No one here would be able to afford the stuff in the first place and the wealthy here would go somewhere else for treatment.

The Preventers might have some and that was a very slight chance. Lyrithine abuse and addiction was not a problem in the Cluster so there was no reason to have any for extreme medical purposes.

Let's not forget that Sally worked with the Preventers. As soon as he had hung up, she would be calling in the other agents and they would be staking out the hospitals, looking for him to show up. Since he had also broken into headquarters back on Earth, they'd shore up security to watch for him there too in case he had the balls to break in.

All in all, he and Solo were stuck and there were only two choices. Duo could kill him and end the suffering right now or he could let him linger for who knew how long and die in agony.

As you could tell, neither of these choices were appealing.

Well, there was one other choice. Hilde's e-mail, the Project Goliath guys' offer, twenty-four hours to respond. Now that he knew they were telling the truth, they were really the only guys who knew how to help Solo. They made him after all.

He knew he was going to regret this in the morning.

He returned to the library he had been using to research and logged back into the computer he had used before abruptly leaving to call up Sally. He had locked it up so that he could return to work as soon as possible and so no one would close everything up behind his back and force him to retrace all his steps.

Going back to Hilde's e-mail, he rapidly typed out a reply that simply stated that he accepted the terms and requested instructions of what to do so they could "meet." He didn't like this anymore than Hilde having to speak with Project Goliath's representative but Solo's life was on the line.

And he was going to do everything he could to save it.

Duo felt a bit sick as she sent the reply. Twenty four hours and he would have his answer. Why did it feel like he was selling his soul?

This was all because he couldn't crack this nut. He couldn't figure out a way to break these guys and save Solo while he was at it and it was just…it was not just frustrating but heart wrenching.

Closing down his e-mail account's menu, he accidently opened up the picture of Jaczynski and his project team. Duo stared boredly at it before deciding to be juvenile and open up the paint program on the computer.

Putting Jaczynski's picture into it, he began doodling on it, putting little mustaches and devil horns on each of the researchers. Yet it did nothing to make him feel better. Even as he drew little penises on one of the tubbier researchers, Duo just felt more and more depressed. He felt helpless, like he was letting Solo down when Solo had done his absolute best to make sure that both of them had survived the risks of the streets.

If it hadn't been for that damn plague, would Solo had been with him right now? Well, according to Project Goliath, Solo would have been hunted down and put into that MIRS machine anyway. Duo would have been killed only because he knew Solo and since he was just a street rat, no one would have missed him.

If Solo hadn't died, would he have gone to the Maxwell Church? Would he have stolen that Mobile Suit in a futile attempt to save them and been imprisoned for it? Would he have snuck onto that Sweeper ship and met Professor G and from there become a Gundam pilot?

So many things that could have been different but all they were were what ifs. Solo had died from the plague and, as he later found out, had been recovered to have his street knowledge implanted into some super soldier clone. Duo had gone on to stay at the Maxwell Church, steal a Mobile Suit and go to military prison, sneak onto that Sweeper ship, and had become a Gundam pilot. Those were the facts.

Heh, would you look at that? Just thinking about that old man, G, he had ended up painting that ridiculous mushroom hair the man had onto the researcher with the long nose. Even with that little, painted mustache, he really looked like G. No really, he did.

Frowning, Duo reset the picture to its original format and repainted the hairdo on that long-nosed researcher. Changing painting tools, he copied on the scar that the Professor had from his memory and trust Duo, he remembered every nuance of that old man. Oh he had hated him; turned off of doctors for life. Updating his immunization shots, his ass!

But wow, that guy really did look like G. It was scary. He was almost tempted to say that the guy next to him was that other scientist. Dr. J wasn't it? But that was Jaczynski there. Not J. Maybe…

Changing the tools again, Duo painted long gray hair onto Jaczynski followed by a long mustache and a small beard that was not connected to the mustache. Something else was missing…oh yeah, the eye gear. Silly, ridiculous…

Holy shit.

With the changes, Jaczynski was nearly a clone of Dr. J. If he was older, then…

Things started connecting in his head. Little things about Heero like how he had seen the guy reset his own leg, much to the braided one's disgust, his unnatural strength, how the fuck he was able to survive the self-destruction of his own Gundam… Had Heero been exposed to Lyrithine at some point? And hadn't Dr. J wanted Heero to be the perfect soldier too?

Was it from Dr. J that Derrick Wallace had come up with Project Goliath? Or had Wallace gotten in on the action and made Heero a guinea pig for his own amusement?

Had Duo finally found out Jaczynski's true identity or was it Dr. J's true identity?

Judging from the picture on his screen, he had.

Damn it, even in death those mad scientists couldn't leave him alone!

Looking at other members of the research team, they all bore similarities to the rest of the five scientists, the very people who had built the five Gundams and their later models. And if he recalled correctly, this was an engineering project. What were the chances that they traded little trade secrets during this thing?

Whatever, it had little to do with what was going on now. Jeez, it was like these guys were looking for something to work on before settling on Mobile Suits. So what was he going to do now? He'd liked to see the others faces if he sent this altered picture of Jaczynski/Dr. J but if he e-mailed the image, they'd be able to trace it back to this computer. He still needed it to get the Project Goliath guy's instructions on what to do next and he didn't want to risk losing one of his limited options just yet.

He was not liking this, not one bit but what could he do? He wanted, no, needed to save Solo for whatever bullshit reason he had. Already he had made himself into a fugitive and thrown away whatever future he may have had for the guy. Was he willing to give up more for what was an obvious trap?

But what could he do? It wasn't like he could…

Duo sat back in his seat, his brow creased as he pondered this new thought.

Maybe that wasn't such a bad idea…

* * *

><p>It seemed like Quatre's "private" room had the honor of having the dual purpose of serving as their base of operations. It was here that the other pilots would come, both to check on him as well as share with one another any progress they may have made.<p>

It irked the blond that he could not share in any exchange because he was bedridden. Well, he could still walk but it seemed like there was a whole conspiracy around trying to keep him in bed. He felt that if he stayed here any longer, his muscles would become atrophic and then what help would he be? He needed to move around, damn it! Use this body of his and not let it go to waste!

Seeing his dark expression, Trowa took the hint not to ask him if he was all right. No, he would not be all right until he was out of this Godforsaken bed!

Instead, the taller, and still active agent said to him, "Sally received contact from Duo. Une wants another conference to go over our options."

Oh? That was nice wasn't it? Maybe he could help out more, you know, if they let him off his leash?

Okay, okay, he was cranky, he admitted it. He didn't mean to take his frustrations out on anybody, even in his own head, but really, Quatre needed to do something. He felt useless just sitting here while the medical staff monitored the mending of his neck. He wanted to help but no one would let him.

Sighing, he asked wearily, "So when's everybody going to be here?"

At that moment, the door to his room opened and Wufei hustled in, followed by Heero who was opening his laptop. While Heero began setting up the secure line, Wufei took his space by the wall again while Trowa took a seat next to his bed. So he was going to be their table again, huh.

Heero was faster this time around because in almost a minute, he placing the laptop on top of his bedridden legs just as Une's image appeared.

"_I hope you have all been informed of recent events_," Une began, waiting a moment to get their reply.

"I have already taken measures to increase security around the base," Heero stated. "If Duo tries to break in, we'll catch him before he finds out that there's no store of Lyrithine here."

What? Why was Duo looking for Lyrithine?

"_And the local hospitals?_" Une asked.

"As soon as we're through here," Heero replied.

"Question. Why is Duo looking for Lyrithine?" Quatre asked, butting in. He did not want to be any further in the dark than he already was.

"Duo called Agent Water earlier today," Heero briefed him. "According to Agent Water, someone he knows is suffering from Lyrithine withdrawal."

"And the only way to insure survival is to give the person Lyrithine," Quatre finished. "Why not barter with Duo if he gives himself and the prototype up, we'll give whoever it is who needs it the Lyrithine?"

"_Because it is the prototype who is withdrawing,_" Une interjected, returning attention back to her. "_The bodies that were recovered the other day had high levels of Lyrithium in them. With the information we've been able to decipher, we've come to the conclusion that these bodies were also prototypes but something went wrong with them._"

"So all the prototypes were exposed to Lyrithine?" Wufei asked. Receiving an affirmative, he continued, "That means that the prototype with Maxwell also had high levels of exposure."

"And without reoccurring doses, the prototype is starting to withdraw," Trowa finished.

"_Exactly_," Une nodded. "_Agent Mirage, you were there to see the prototype and Duo in the same place. Can you tell us how they were behaving with one another? Would Duo try something risky to save the prototype?_"

Quatre thought about it a bit. He recalled their last meeting in that apartment complex, how Duo refused to give up or come back with him. All the vague answers that didn't really make sense to him, how he talked with the prototype that had restrained him with Lyrithine-boosted strength.

_I won't risk Solo here. I lost him once and I don't want to do it again._

Duo may run and hide but he never told a lie. With the skills he had, Duo would have a lot more options than the layperson would. When he said he wasn't going to lose the prototype, Quatre knew he meant it.

"He would," Quatre answered. "He told me back there that he had lost him once and wasn't going to do it again."

"That doesn't make any sense," Wufei said. "How did Maxwell lose him in the first place? They've only just met!"

"But how much do we know of Duo?" Trowa asked softly. "Our memories of him during the war are of someone who talked a lot but did he ever talk about himself? Sally's told me that there were a lot of clones that were planted in different places on Earth and in the Colonies. What are the odds that Duo knew one of these clones?"

"_Slim_," Une stated, "_but it matters little. Mirage, I want to know just how far Duo will go to save that weapon._"

"All the way," Quatre said. "I got the impression he would give everything up for…him. Including his life."

Une sighed and for a moment the woman looked so much older than she really was. It was a bit startling Quatre found. She really must be under a lot of stress; how could he have not seen that before?

"_Gentlemen, we have here a golden opportunity for that prototype's termination. We can wait it out and let the Lyrithine withdrawal kill it but if Duo is going to do whatever it takes to circumvent that…_"

Quatre did not like where this was going.

"You're not suggesting we kill Duo?" he asked warily.

"_I'm not going to say that_," Une said, peering straight at him with hardened eyes. "_It would be the easy way but the last thing I want is to kill one of you five. No, we're going to change up our strategies. Duo's going to be desperate the more time that passes. He will do something. So we'll let him come to us._"

"How do we do that?" Heero asked. "He knows how the Preventers operate and he'll know if we have Lyrithine on this Colony."

"The L2 Cluster rarely if ever has Lyrithine addicts," Trowa pointed out. "The drug itself is expensive and only the wealthy can afford it here. This Colony is no exception to that and Duo would know that too, wouldn't he?"

"_We'll have to change that then_," Une said. "_We'll put it out into the media that due to increasing rates of Lyrithine usage, hospitals will begin to be required to hold a small store in case of emergencies and we'll start at this Colony. Duo won't be able to resist for too long and he'll have to make a move._"

"He'll suspect a trap," Heero said.

"_Naturally, but we won't increase security_," Une explained. "_From all outward appearances, the hospitals will have the same amount of security. All we're really doing is rigging the room the Lyrithine will be kept. Agents will be disguised as nurses and janitors in order to keep a look out and a couple of agents will be placed in the room itself. In anticipation that Duo does get around the agents and retrieves the Lyrithine, we will have a tracer on the syringe and the case it will come in as well as a built in taser. Should the case be moved a certain distance once activated, he'll be taken down and we can apprehend him there._"

"Trick him into not paying attention to the drug," Heero nodded. "If he's stressed enough, he'll miss both the bugs and the taser and even if he does defuse the taser, we'll still be able to track him down."

It was a low trick but Quatre could see that this would be the best way to capture Duo. He didn't want to hurt the other, though he did have those times when he wanted to hit him. But what other choice did they have? At least Une didn't want them killing him unlike the prototype.

And he was still unsure about that. The prototype looked and acted like a person would. He was living, he was breathing, what gave them the right to kill him?

It was at this point that Quatre knew he wouldn't be able to contribute further. He was off duty and wouldn't be allowed to go anywhere until the powers that be said he could go. Sure it wasn't the best thing to tune out or doze off while his boss was talking but really, what could he do?

If only this all hadn't happened…


	18. Chapter 18

Author's Note: A bit of a short chapter here. Mostly set up. However, I would like to take the time to give a thank you to Wraith and their correction of Sally's codename. To be honest, I can never remember Noin and Sally's codes so once again, a big thank you for the correction. For a lot of you, you may not have seen this continuity error and that was because not half an hour after Wraith's review, I made the corrections and reposted the chapter. Yes, I can work that quickly. Anyway, if you're bored easily, next chapter is the one that will upset the monotony but this chapter is necessary if only to raise a couple more last minute questions. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Warning: language

Chapter 18

Duo kept a sharp eye out, making sure no one was following him back to his and Solo's hideout. They had less than twenty-four hours left before it was showtime and Duo was loathe to let anyone do something to fuck it all up.

He did not need the Preventers busting in on him and sentencing Solo to his deathbed. Still, Duo would admit that he didn't know what the Preventers would do with Solo if they got their hands on him. There was the protocol to destroy all illegal weapons but by now they should have found out that Solo himself was a weapon.

So what would they do?

Duo just didn't want to chance it. He would rather err on the side of paranoia where there was still a big chance that he was going to kill his blond companion off instead of making it absolute. With the big chance, there was still that small chance that things could work out with Solo living.

And he had not been using the quotations around that name…was he really starting to see this guy as his dead friend?

No, now was not the time to think about that, especially out in the open where anyone could see him. Once he was out of sight, then he could get lost in his head.

Taking a quick and subtle look around, Duo turned onto a sidestreet, heading towards the large wall that bordered the livable areas. It didn't matter where you were, anyone could see the inner walls of the Colony that went straight up to the spacious, metal ceiling above, something you wouldn't find on Earth. It was how you could tell this place was all artificial.

Yet this wall was his destination and as he came up to it, he glanced over his shoulder to see if anyone was watching or following him. Determining that he was all alone and out of sight from prying eyes, he accessed the hidden keypad that no one outside of the Colony's maintenance crew would know about.

He knew what the code was due to hacking into the Colony's main serves and so punched it in, a door not noticeable to the naked eye hissing open as it granted him access. One last look around and he was slipping into the door, shutting it behind him.

With a sigh, he let his guard relax slightly as he started down the metal hallway that was only big enough for four grown men to walk pressed together, their shoulders crushed against each other's. This was his secret, how he could hide in a place like a Colony without anyone coming upon him by accident. Here everything was controlled right down to the temperature so freezing or overheating to death were not options.

However, there was nothing substantial, like water and food, to be found so that would require raids into the city sectors to get such supplies. But if you needed to hide yourself on a Colony, no one would ever think to check in the parts where only the engineers who made sure this place remained in tiptop condition populated. And as an added bonus, since this Colony (along with the others that made up the L2 Cluster) was somewhat cheap, you wouldn't find security devices like cameras or motion detectors. The money that it would cost to use such equipment was being used for other things.

Plus why spend that kind of cash on something you weren't going to use. Yes, yes, Duo knew that if there was any kind of person out there who loved wasting money, it was a politician. Once you mentioned that the money spent on using that kind of equipment would be better served for their pet projects, though, then they weren't hesitant at all to redirect the funds.

If there was one thing that hadn't changed during the wars, it was the politicians.

Okay, back to his earlier thoughts. Solo. Right. What was he thinking about him again? Oh right, how he was starting to refer to the blond without the quotations. Yeah, the guy was really growing on him wasn't he? Kinda like how he, Duo, grew onto the blond back when they were kids.

Everything was backwards now, wasn't it? It was as if he was stuck on Opposite Day but the made-up holiday never seemed to end. He was just so tired with all this.

But they had one more act to go through and up until this point, Duo had been sure that he could at least keep them both alive. Now he wasn't so sure.

One thing that had remained constant, though, was that he was going to do whatever it took to make sure Solo didn't die on him again. Not like last time. Though when you think about it, at the rate things were going, it would be him, Duo, who would be the one to die this time. Everything was backwards anyway, why not include death as well?

Reaching a door, Duo punched in another code that he had programed into the door's keypad and when this door opened as well, he strode right in without any of his usual grace. He supposed that all the stress was finally catching up with him. Making sure that the door slid closed and locked, he took in the lit up room, eyes scanning around to find his blond roomie.

It didn't take long as Solo was slouched against a metal wall, his head tilted back into the vertical surface, his eyes closed, and his breathing deep. It looked like he was sleeping but Duo knew better. The blond's breathing wasn't even. Duo knew that it sounded unbelievable but even if you labored for each breath, in sleep your breathing would even out. Every time.

Without wasting another breath, Duo took his seat next to the blond, ignoring the emptied water bottles and discarded wrappers that littered the floor. Yeah, they hadn't had much of an opportunity to clear up here and Duo made a note to do so once they left. Even in a controlled environment, if ignored, this garbage would eventually stink the place up. What if he needed to use this place again?

That's why he brought some trash bags with him this time around. He had to see if Solo would be up to the physical activity first.

"How ya hangin' up?" he asked so Solo he cracked open a strained green eye at him.

"…that mean?" Solo rasped out, shifting to get more comfortable.

"Still haven't gotten the hang of slang yet, huh?" Duo chuckled. "That stuff takes some time to learn. I asked how you were doing."

"Physically, not well," Solo reported. "Pain all over, just stopped a while ago."

Duo patted the blond's muscled shoulder sympathetically. That, of course, reminded him of what made the blond so well-built. Fucking Lyrithine and now that the blond had no access to it, his body was trying to rebalance itself.

It was a process that was going to kill him in both the short and long run.

"Got some bad news and some worse news," Duo said.

"_Is it ever good?_" Solo asked wryly, the accented voice coming out again. This time Duo didn't flinch back. He was getting more and more used to it and that voice had been coming out more often. It had increased once Solo's body had begun to show signs of withdrawal so the braided one had no qualms about it.

"What I wouldn't give to have a bit of good news," Duo agreed with him, pointedly not looking at the blond now. "I'm going to let you decide which one is the lesser of the two evils here."

"_Shoot,_" Solo said.

"Well, I know what they hell's going on with you," Duo began, trying to sound somewhat perky but failing miserably. "You have a Lyrithine addiction and unfortunately, that kind of thing becomes lethal. The longer you go without a dose, the more painful it's going to become. By now, you need the stuff to live and unfortunately, it's an outlawed substance. It's illegal to have for the same reason of what you're experiencing right now."

"What's the other?" Solo asked, returning to his regular voice.

"The guys who made you came to Hilde today and told her to give me an offer," Duo said.

"Hilde…she's the female from the other day, right?" Solo asked.

"Yeah, that was her," Duo confirmed.

"_Bit of a firecracker,_" Solo commented.

"What kind of woman in her right mind would hang out with me if they weren't firecrackers," Duo asked rhetorically. "Anyway, those guys…they've offered to save your life. If I say yes, they'll contact Hilde again and give us our instructions through her. If not, then the lack of Lyrithine catches up with you and…you know."

"You said yes," Solo stated, turning his head to look at Duo with both eyes.

Duo closed his as he bowed his head. "I don't want to lose you again."

"Again?" Solo asked.

Duo lifted his head up, recalling the words he had just used but instead of hastily trying to cover it up, he let his head drop again. What was the point? As often as the old Solo's voice popped out of his mouth, it stood to reason that some awkward things would come out of his. He wasn't about to do damage control now when it seemed like things were coming to a head anyway. Tomorrow was going to be a big day and after all the effort the Project Goliath guys had put in trying to get Solo back, Duo had no qualm that there was a good chance they would die.

It just made everything they had done in the past couple of weeks look like a waste of time.

The raid of that allegedly abandoned base, secretly making their way to Sanc, breaking into Preventers HQ, getting onto the Preventers most wanted list, escaping up to this Colony, eluding almost certain capture…so much done in so little time and now it was coming to a most bitter end.

Duo didn't know who to blame. Himself, the Project Goliath guys, some mythical higher power than just loved tormenting him? Was someone even to blame? He just didn't know anymore.

It didn't matter how many answers he found about Project Goliath because how were those answers going to save Solo? Or him?

"_It ain't that bad,_" Solo spoke up. When Duo said nothing, the blond continued, "_It's kinda relievin', ya know? No more pain._"

"Don't say things like that," Duo ordered.

"_You was always stubborn,_" Solo chuckled. "_E'erthin' was gonna be all right 'cause we could get through anyting as long as we was wit each other._"

"Why are you speaking like that?" Duo asked, his voice low.

"_Why's it matter?_" Solo asked in reply. "_I died before. So what? I don't tink it's gonna be diff'rent dis time._"

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Duo asked, his voice rising. "It's not working."

"_Never said I was good at it,_" Solo chuckled.

"I'll say," Duo grumbled. "Your way of making me feel better is to tell me to get off my ass 'cause our stomachs weren't going to fill themselves. If you have the time to be sad, you have time to snatch an extra apple from the fruit stall."

"'_xactly,_" Solo agreed, his body giving a shudder. Duo tensed for a second, waiting for another spasm to hit the blond's body but when it didn't happen, he relaxed slightly. He didn't know when the last spasm session had occurred so he didn't know if Solo was due for another one. "_Didn't stop ya from bein' a brat 'bout it._"

"The Father and Sister would have agreed with you on that one," Duo said, a fond smile curving his lips. "I was a bit of a handful."

"_No kiddin',_" Solo snorted, wincing for a second. "_Which is why I'm wonderin' why you sound like yer given' up._"

And then Duo smirked. "Who the hell ever said I was giving up?"

"_Coulda fooled me,_" Solo snarked. "You've led me to believe that you were surrendering." Back to the other Solo eh?

"You said it before, I'm stubborn," Duo said. "I'm not going to let those assholes dictate how things are going to go. If anything, they just showed me their hand. They're desperate. What idiots could forget that the person they're trying to regain has a Lyrithine addiction, especially when they're the ones who gave it to him? If they had, they would have just waited a while and not waste their resources trying to capture you."

"That makes sense," Solo admitted.

"It leads me to believe that the person in charge is not that bright when it comes to planning," Duo continued. "If the Wallace guy is the big cheese, then he had no sense of strategic planning. He's like one of the rich brats of L2; they want what they want now and don't care who suffers because of it. He already fucked up when he sent those clones after us because now the Preventers have them. Don't you think the Preventers would be interested to find that they have a lead that could take them to these morons?"

"_We bait?_" Solo asked, switching again.

"Live bait," Duo agreed. "It's that old plan we had back when we were kids. Distract the baker with one kid out front while the other snuck in through the window and got the goods. There's a bit of a twist this time."

"Then what?" Solo asked.

"Don't know yet but I was always good at playing things by ear," Duo shrugged. "I'll think of something."

"Reassuring," Solo grumbled. "If we do go through with this and I'm alive, what will you do then? Like you said, I'll die without the drug and without a constant supply, won't this just be resisting the inevitable?"

"If you can learn how to use contractions then I can sure as hell find a way around your Lyrithine addiction," Duo replied. "Where there's a will, there's a way and I swear I will find a way."

"Why do I have the feeling that if anyone can find a way, it will be you?" Solo asked.

"'Cause I'm stubborn!" Duo answered cheekily. "I may run and hide but I _never_ tell a lie."

"_Atta boy,_" Solo said.

* * *

><p>Quatre had a new visitor and who it was was surprising yet unsurprising at the same time. Regardless, the blond was glad that there was someone else around here that wasn't the others. Why Sally had decided to come into his room, he did not know but he was sure it was more than interest in his current physical state.<p>

Sally was an intelligent woman and an exemplary doctor but Quatre knew of others who were better and had the capital to afford them. He really had no need for Sally to check him out but once again he wasn't complaining. It was boring here and since he wasn't allowed to do his job, talking with Sally would help to alleviate the boredom.

"For the hundredth time, they're taking good care of me," he told the headstrong woman.

"I'm just worry that you aren't receiving the optimal amount of care possible," Sally retorted as she went through his folder. "This Colony isn't known for having the best medical services around and I want to make sure there are no corners being skipped."

"If they hadn't been concerned about how my neck would have endured spaceflight, they would have sent me to another Colony," Quatre said. "Given that this is the L2 Cluster, they would have had to send me to a Colony in the L1 and L4 sectors and that would have taken too much time."

"It didn't mean they couldn't have shipped the best of the best over here," Sally continued to grumble. "You are a Winner too and that family has a lot of prominence in the Colonies."

"Prominence means nothing when you have to travel from one side of space to the other," Quatre replied. "The nearest Colony outside of the L2 Cluster is at the very least 2,000,000 kilometers away and that's taking into account orbits and drift. That's a flight that can take up to a day at the least and that's if they're pushing it. At least it's quicker than what it used to be. I read that once that shuttles used to go about 27,870 kilometers an hour and we've managed to increase that by three times!"

"They could be faster," Sally stated. "It's inexcusable! Why, I'd used to treat patients when bullets were whizzing only _millimeters_ from my head. Did you think that stopped me?"

"I think that the distance in space and the dangerous surroundings of a battlefield are two separate things," Quatre said.

"They shouldn't stop improving the engines and dynamics of the shuttles just because the bureaucrats think that they're good enough now," Sally argued. "How else will we be able to leave the solar system at this rate and explore others? Our scout satellites can only go so far before they run out of fuel so how can we depend on them reaching another system if they can't increase their speed?"

"But there's no friction in space so they'll be able to keep moving without stop forever," Quatre said. "They could coast into the next system."

"We'd be able to get to other planets faster if we developed better propulsion systems is all I'm saying," Sally said. "And what do you think they're going to use to slow those satellites down? Fuel. If they don't have fuel to stop, the satellites will crash into a star or a planet or something and then the bureaucrats are going to demand why there wasn't any fuel to stop."

At the very least, Sally could provide interesting conversations. It was better hearing her rant over how slow space transportation was than drone of the lights above him.

After engaging her over how they could advance technology as they knew it, Quatre readied himself to open up a topic that he knew they both were uncomfortable over. He had to know what Sally thought about this whole thing. Specifically, he wanted to know what she thought about what Duo had done so far. Did she think there was any merit to it or did she disapprove of the decision his friend had made?

Why did he want to know? Was it maybe because he wanted to be sure that someone shared some of his doubts? Was it because he just wanted to talk with someone about it, make some sense of the feelings he was experiencing?

"I'll be honest here, I'm not really sure," Sally said, frowning. The look was in no way directed at him but more to herself, as if she was telling herself that she shouldn't be so uncertain. "We've been enemies and we've been allies though for the most part it was the latter."

"You were an enemy of Duo's?" Quatre asked.

"Whose hospital do you think he broke Heero out of?" Sally retorted. "But when OZ took over, it was natural that I switch. I'll admit that the Alliance wasn't the best thing there ever was but even I can tell when someone's trying to usurp power. As it turned out, it was you guys who were fighting OZ the whole time and none of us Alliance officials had a clue until it was too late."

"Funny, Duo never mentioned you during that time," Quatre commented.

"We never met face to face," Sally admitted. "And you know what? I never begrudged him for it. He only knocked out the doctors and didn't lay a finger on the other patients we had. The only damage was the holes in the walls."

"And Heero's leg," Quatre added, "but that was more Heero's fault than it was Duo's. Heero waited too long to open his parachute."

"Back to Duo, I don't know what to think," Sally said. "I'll say it right here, I have no idea what he's trying to do. All I do know is that he's hanging around with a person who was born and designed for war. That makes me wonder why he's trying to protect this person. He must have some reason."

"You've read up on it all?" Quatre asked. Getting a nod, Quatre said, "When I last saw him, he told me that he wasn't going to lose the prototype again. He said it like he had met him before."

"I wouldn't be surprised if he met one of the clones," Sally said. "The people behind this sent out dozens of clones all over. Odds are you met one of the clones before but the encounter was so underwhelming that you didn't bother to remember it."

"You could be right," Quatre admitted. "Damn it, why is this happening? Who would be so cold as to reduce a person, a human being, to some emotionless automaton?"

"I would actually be asking who would fund such a thing," Sally stated.

Quatre didn't say anything in answer to that but he did look at her in confusion.

"Science projects like this one requires money, Quatre," Sally explained. "All the machines, the Lyrithine, everything involved requires money. Without it, Project Goliath wouldn't have been able to get as far as it has."

"Wasn't it the Alliance who funded it?" Quatre asked.

"The money the Alliance gave them would have dried up years ago," Sally snorted. "This thing needs constant funds to keep operating. The way I hear it, the tech guys have been going over some of the financial information you guys brought back and they've managed to link some transactions to OZ and the Barton Foundation."

"You think Treize knew about this?" Quatre asked. While he respected the former general to a degree, Quatre couldn't put it past Trieze to be involved with something like this. The OZ general had built the Epyon in secret and then unleashed it upon the world with Heero as its pilot. What was there to say he hadn't considered mass produced super soldiers?

"Une didn't know so if he knew, he told her nothing about it," Sally said. "But he would have motivation to back it. Remember the Mobile Dolls. I think Trieze would have done anything to render the Dolls mute even if it meant stripping clones of their humanity."

"And Dekim Barton was already mad with his lust for power," Quatre said. "I could see him backing a project but…"

"But?" Sally prompted.

"You just said something like Project Goliath needs constant funding," Quatre said. "With the Alliance, OZ, and the Barton Foundation out of the picture, who's funding it now?"

"That's exactly what I asked myself," Sally said. "It's only a matter of time until they match whose funds have been pouring into Goliath's coffers but maybe we could find out that answer if we track down the scientists who are working on it. Someone has to know where that money is coming from."

"Do you think we should tell the guys about it?" Quatre asked.

Sally merely gave him a "what do you think?" look. "Of course we do," she stated. "We'll wait until one of them comes back. In the meantime, how about you and I try to figure out who would be motivated to fund this?"

Well, at least that would give Quatre something to do.


	19. Chapter 19

Author's Note: We're getting to the final stretch here. All the characters are in place and the final showdown is coming up. How many chapters are left, you'll just have to find out. No filler in this chapter, ShadowMajin, as everything here was put in for a reason. If it seems like it sticks out, you'll find out just how it fits in next chapter. Until then, enjoy this one.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Warning: language, violence

Chapter 19

Solo's laborious breathing wasn't doing anything to help calm Duo's nerves down. They were back at the library that Duo had been using the past few days, the same computer he had used to send e-mails to Hilde and research Jaczynski and Wallace logged on to _DragQueenS2_'s account.

According to what Hilde had been told, in the next few minutes she should be receiving another visit and from there would inform them of what they needed to do next.

Duo figured they had another ten minutes before the message would be sent to them and so he was taking advantage of the time given to him by constructing another e-mail. Already he had typed out the message and currently he was putting on a few attachments, specifically the photos of Dr. J and Jaczynski. The recipient was going to be an obstacle; who was he going to send this to? The guys? Une?

So, to get around this, he put in multiple addresses, even putting in Heero's. He figured that the person who served as the face for the Gundam pilots still checked his e-mails at regular intervals, i.e. twice an hour. At least that was how he operated when Relena wasn't out in public giving a speech, attending a legislative session, or doing whatever important functions that the position of Vice Foreign Minister required.

But even when he was keeping busy, he was still on edge. Was there any way he could turn this whole shitty situation upside down and come out of it in one piece? Solo was getting worse by the hour; he needed that Lyrithine, now. The blond was getting looks from people who walked by and those also busy at other computers though some of those looks were just curious and not out of concern. Yes, there were a few concerned looks but no one had come over to ask them about it.

There was still more to type out in his composed e-mail but Duo still needed to get word from Hilde. As the minutes ticked by, the braided one grew more and more antsy. Since Solo couldn't keep his deteriorating condition to himself, it was increasing the amount of stress he was experiencing.

Checking the time and finding that only about five minutes had passed, Duo sighed and leaned back into his seat, tapping his foot in irritation as he willed for time to speed up. A glance to Solo to check to see if the blond was still with him only increased Duo's irritability.

It was the waiting that was going to kill him.

"How're you holding up?" he asked the blond in a quiet voice. He didn't want to get shushed.

"Not well," Solo rasped.

Duo winced at the tone and hoarseness, reminded of the last time he had heard Solo sound like that. That…hadn't turned out well the last time. At least this time, Duo knew of a way that could help though he had no clue about what to do with it in the long run.

Why was it that just when he was getting used to this guy, getting used to having someone that sometimes spoke like his old friend that the world had to try and take him away again? It wasn't fucking fair. It wasn't fair the first time and it wasn't fair this time.

Whoever was responsible for this cruel joke, Duo was going to kill them. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

"Just hang in there," he told the blond in hushed tones. He couldn't do anything but watch in concerned as Solo developed a tic in one of his eyes. The spasms were taking different forms now, happening more and more regularly to a point that they were almost constant.

Fuck killing, he was going to torture, mutilate, and massacre whoever was responsible for this.

"Hang where?" Solo asked.

"It's an expression," Duo found himself explaining without an eye roll. "A phrase. Slang."

"What's it mean?" Solo asked.

"Well…um. Kinda hard for me to describe but it basically means don't die or stay conscious or something like that," Duo shrugged.

"Still trying to understand slang," Solo admitted. "_Learned it once._"

Duo managed to flash a troubled smile but turned back towards his account's inbox, willing for the e-mail he knew was coming to show up already. His heart began beating faster as he saw that something had come in.

He would regret clicking on it immediately instead of checking to see if it had come from Hilde.

Closing the message that advertised to him a one hundred percent effective way to enlarge his penis, he began tapping his fingers against the table irritably. Come on man, they didn't have all day!

"Was that not the e-mail?" Solo asked.

"Damn right it wasn't," Duo nearly spat out. "Spam mail. How the hell didn't it go to the spam box?"

"What's spam?" Solo asked.

"Something that everybody asks about and nobody knows the answer to," Duo replied. "All anyone knows is that it comes in a can."

"But how did it become electronic?" Solo wondered.

"You tell me," Duo grumbled as the inbox received a new message. Being cautious this time, he made sure that it was Hilde's address on the e-mail before he opened it.

The time was 10:23, Earthside, morning, Europe time.

"We gotta go to the spaceport," Duo said. "Looks like we got a reserved flight. Pick up tickets at the front desk, reserved under Farrell. Two hours. Plenty of time."

"So we go?" Solo asked.

"Not quite," Duo said as he returned to his composed message. He typed in the information that he had, instructing to search for flights that had passengers under the name Farrell. With finality, he hit the send button then closed up everything, logging off the computer.

"Now we go," Duo muttered as he helped Solo to his feet and began helping him to walk. Solo was leaning a lot of his weight on him and Duo could feel the blond's muscles contracting and relaxing involuntarily. Just how much was this guy suffering?

Duo hardened his face in determination. He was going to put an end to this thing one way or another.

He swore it.

* * *

><p>The time was 10:28, Earthside, morning, Europe time.<p>

Nothing had happened this morning but that didn't stop Wufei from making sure that the stake-out was still sharp. He didn't want anyone slouching on the job because, no matter how slim it might be, there was still a chance that Maxwell would try to have another physical meeting with Hilde Schbeiker.

The girl was still in her place of work but if she left the area, Wufei would personally follow after her, making sure she didn't leave his sight even for restroom breaks.

"Any activity?" he snapped, not taking his eyes from the binoculars that he was using to watch Hilde's workplace closely. It was the second time this hour that he had asked that but he wanted to be sure nothing was left out.

"Just a couple calls," one of the agents stated in a tone that suggested boredom. Wufei made a mental note to make sure that this young man was properly stimulated later. "There were a few e-mails sent out. Guess what, whoever this _DragQueenS2_, she likes them."

"Anything else?" Wufei demanded.

"Not much except for a couple guys going in," the agent shrugged.

Wufei already knew about those customers. He had watched them go in though only one left empty-handed. He spun the information around in his head, trying to decide if anything needed to be checked up on. That person who she had been e-mailing a lot recently ought to be checked out.

"See if you can't find out who this _DragQueenS2_ is," he ordered. "Make sure you find out when they started conversing."

"Roger," the agent said as his fingers began dancing on his keyboard.

Oh, he was really going to have to have a word with that agent.

"Should we start looking into the scrapyard's patrons?" a female agent asked. "Do you think that maybe our suspect is communicating with Schbeiker through her customers?"

"It's plausible but what's your reasoning?" Wufei asked. He did not want to start going on wild goose chases despite the fact that chasing after Maxwell was one.

"I noticed the most recent customer that came in arrived at about the same time today as they did yesterday," the agent said.

"That could be coincidence," the first agent scoffed.

"He's right but we can check," Wufei said. He couldn't believe he was doing this. "Do we know where he went?"

"Checking the feed," the female agent said.

As the agents did their duties, Wufei watched as a car pulled up into the scrapyard after being admitted through the large reinforced gate. The gate slid shut behind the vehicle as it came to a stop, two men getting out of it and heading for the main office. More customers, Wufei assumed, though there was something in the way the men were walking that caught his attention. They were walking like military men but they weren't the first he had observed entering the scrapyard with that kind of gait. Some of Hilde Schbeiker's regulars had the same walk.

But he had never seen two men of military background arrive at the same time and in the same car before. Neither looked scruffy as most did.

"I'm not seeing where the last customer went," the female agent said. "He walks off and down the street until he walks off screen. Looks kinda old though."

However, before the agent could continue, Wufei watched as flashes erupted from within Hilde's office.

Gunfire flashes.

"All agents, converge on the main office now!" Wufei ordered as he began running out of the room, his gun removed from its holster. "Suspects are in the building, consider them armed and dangerous!"

The next two minutes moved slowly, Wufei bursting out of the building that their operation was being conducted in, running across the wide street towards the scrapyard. He had no idea what was going on in there but all he knew was that someone was in danger, probably dead, and he wasn't going to let the perpetrators get away even if he had to kill them in cold blood.

The gate that was supposed to serve as protection was now his largest obstacle. Wufei had no explosives on him but what he did have was the skills of a martial artist. Without pausing for an instant, he leapt at a nearby streetlamp and used it to ricochet off of to reach the top of the gate and from there drop into the scrapyard it blocked off.

He could hear the popping of each gunshot as he landed on the simulated ground, drawing closer to the car. The door to the office was just opening as Wufei lifted his gun up, opening fire as soon as he confirmed that it was one of the perpetrators trying to exit. He got the man in his shoulder with his first shot, a second one into his left lung, not far from where Wufei's first shot had hit. The man jerked as he misstepped and stumbled down the three steps in front of the door.

Wufei threw himself to a side as the other man began firing at him, also trying to make his way out. The second man stumbled over his partner and Wufei took the opportunity to shoot this one as well. The way the second man jerked, his shots had got him in the stomach and chest.

Knowing that the second man would be going into shock any second now, Wufei continued his charge to the door, taking the time to slammed his foot into the first man's head and knock him out.

The office was in disarray and Wufei couldn't see Hilde anywhere. He hoped that the young woman hadn't been killed in what seemed to be a random act of violence. Seemed to be being the key phrase here. Further investigating was needed but Wufei had an idea that robbery was not a motive here.

"Hilde?" he called out, purposely not using her last name as he did for most. He had taken to calling her by her first name mainly because he had not been informed of her surname for quite some time. By the time he did know, he had been so used to calling her Hilde that he decided not to make the switch. "Are you all right in there? Answer me!"

There was no answer and Wufei swore as he trekked further in. Reaching the desk that he knew Hilde preferred to use, he looked over it and spotted the girl on the floor, a large gun in hand that was presently aimed right at him. He jerked to a side as Hilde fired a shot at him, most likely mistaking him for another would-be killer.

"Put your gun down!" he hollered. "I'm here to help you!"

"That you Wufei?" Hilde croaked from around the desk.

"Yes!" he declared. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fucking shot, of course I'm all right!" Hilde snarked. "Fuck, it hurts!"

"Agent Night?" one of his fellow agents called from the doorway. Must have had to climb over the concrete fence that bordered the scrapyard as he had, especially since the gate had not been opened yet.

"Call an ambulance, now!" Wufei roared.

"Yes sir!"

"Wow, you have a way with people," Hilde chuckled as they both heard footsteps running away.

"Would you put the gun down?" Wufei asked cautiously as he came back into Hilde's view. "I'd rather no one else require medical attention."

"Whatever," Hilde shrugged as she casually dropped her gun to the floor. Flipping the switch that would open the metal barrier while darting around the desk to examine the wound, Wufei grimaced at the blood with distaste.

"Looks like a shoulder wound," Wufei commented as he began applying pressure, taking off his jacket so he could use it to stanch the wound and slow the bleeding if not stop it outright. "There's not an exit wound."

"Bullet's still in me, fuck," Hilde groaned. "Got lucky I was turning when they started shooting."

"You're going to be okay," Wufei told her. "Regardless of how things are between us, Maxwell would kill me if anything happened to you."

"I might kill myself," Hilde grumbled. "Save those assholes the trouble of assassinating me."

"Excuse me?" Wufei's sharp eyes bore into the young woman.

"Oops," Hilde muttered, not looking him in the eye.

"What do you know?" Wufei demanded with narrowed eyes. "Tell me Hilde. What's going on?"

"Duo's gonna kill me," Hilde sighed. Looking up at him, she said, "I hope you don't press charges…"

"Hilde," Wufei growled warningly.

"Duo's in over his head," Hilde said. "He's trying to save Solo from dying from a Lyrithine withdrawal and agreed to meet up with the guys chasing them. I had a bad feeling about it ever since that Wallace guy came in here. Then those assholes come in and before they shoot at me, they say, 'Wallace sends his regards.' I don't even know how they found me or knew…"

"Knew what? Have you been in communication with Maxwell?" Wufei demanded. "How? Answer me Hilde!"

"Why would you care?" Hilde scoffed at him. With a sigh, she nevertheless continued, "Still…Duo's gonna get them both killed at this rate. They're going to meet with Wallace at the spaceport in less than two hours. They have a private flight and everything ready to go and the second Duo and Solo arrive, they're taking off."

"Fuck!" Wufei swore. He needed to contact Yuy and the others now!

"Sir? Ambulance is on the way and you have a call from Agent Trump," the female agent from earlier said, a phone in hand.

"Watch her," Wufei ordered her as he snatched the phone from her. "Make sure she doesn't die on us."

Leaving the office building, he put the phone up to his ear meaning to tell Yuy everything he had just been told. He barely got a word in before Yuy cut him off.

"_We've received an e-mail from Duo,"_ Yuy stated. _"I need you at the spaceport now."_

"Hilde just told me," Wufei stated. "Some men from Project Goliath tried to kill her. She's still alive but wounded. She informed me that Maxwell is meeting up with a man named Wallace. I bet it's the same Wallace whose name has been flying around recently."

Not even a second of silence to absorb it, Yuy was already giving him further instructions without missing a beat. _"Duo mentioned this too. Wufei, when you arrive at the spaceport, do not do anything to impede Duo and the prototype."_

"What?" Wufei exclaimed.

"_Duo volunteered himself as bait,"_ Yuy explained. _"He wants us to follow after the shuttle without obstructing it. This might be the opportunity we need to find where Wallace is hiding and shut down Project Goliath once and for all."_

"Are you crazy Yuy?" Wufei shouted into the phone. "Our orders are to terminate that prototype, not give it back to Wallace! And why are you trusting Maxwell now? Have you already forgotten about his recent actions?"

"_No, Chang, I haven't,"_ Yuy stated. _"These aren't my orders either. Apparently, Duo also sent the same e-mail to Une. These are her orders."_

Wufei swore at that. So now Une was intruding after all this time. Maxwell had covered his bases, hadn't he? But why this sudden change? All this time, Maxwell had been avoiding them, literally running away. Why was he telling them where he was going to be and to follow him?

"_Right now we're sneaking a transmitter onto the private shuttle,"_ Yuy said. _"Get to the spaceport as soon as you can because when that shuttle leaves, so do we."_

"Right," Wufei sighed as he hung up. Glancing over at the gunmen's car, Wufei debated whether or not to take it or run two blocks over to where their Preventers issued, undercover vehicles were parked.

It only took him a second to decide.

Knowing that he was going to get shit for this, he drove the assassins' car out of the scrapyard, racing towards the spaceport.

* * *

><p>There was no way they were going to make it to the spaceport on foot in under two hours, what with the way Solo was starting to have trouble walking. Not wanting to do it but having no choice, Duo once again committed grand theft auto.<p>

He made a note to himself to try and return it in one piece. Odds were the owner didn't have insurance and probably spent half his or her life savings on it.

"Still with me?" Duo asked, not taking his eyes off the generally empty road. In comparison to Earth, the Colony wasn't that big but trying to walk from one side of the colony to another was questionable. Questionable because of the unsavory elements that hung around and also because while the Colony didn't look big on the outside, the inside was a different story.

As Duo knew, everything was bigger on the inside than the outside.

Solo nodded, showing that he did still have some control over his body. So much sweat was beading on that forehead that Duo had to reach over and wipe some of it away every so often. He had never seen anyone withdraw from Lyrithine before but he was starting to get why it was a scary thing.

It was slow but once it got going it dragged out, making you suffer more and more. The people around you would be worried over you and that worry would increase over time until they too were suffering from all the stress of trying to care for you. At least with other drug withdrawals, it was much quicker and if you were going to die, then at least you didn't have to wait weeks for it.

"We'll be there in a bit," Duo said. "You can stay with me that long, right? I don't want to have to drag your ass into the port."

"Can ya talk to me?" Solo asked hoarsely, taking in a deep breath. His voice was weaving between his usual flat tone and the accented one that belonged to the original Solo. "Dun like the quiet."

Had Duo not been in control of his emotions right then, he might have drove them into a wall. Whether the blond knew it or not, he had uttered the same words Solo had just a couple days before he…

…

Like last time, Duo complied with the request.

"What do you want me to talk about?" Duo asked, swallowing. Same words he used back then minus the accent.

Solo shifted in his seat, his green eyes drawing towards him. "The braid," Solo finally answered. "Can ya tell me 'bout it?"

"Why the hell are you so curious about it?" Duo asked. "It's just a damn braid. S'not important."

"We both know having long hair is detrimental for a soldier to have," Solo pointed out. "You're always careful with it and never let anyone near it. I was wonderin' why."

"Noticed that, huh?" Duo said grimly.

"I was trained ta notice things," Solo agreed.

"It's not the braid I care about," Duo said at last. "It's the hair and what it means to me. The braid is just to keep it out of the way."

"So what does your hair mean?" Solo asked.

"I know the old you knows," Duo said. "Despite what all those reports said about selected memories and such, there was some part of the old Solo that remembers me and from there so do you. Think about it and I'm sure you'll remember a kid who looks like you just with longer hair."

"I…don't really recall that," Solo admitted.

"I got it from you, Solo," Duo said. "When I was a kid, I wanted to be just like you or like who you were. That included the long hair. Was pissed that you were blond and I wasn't for a while. Plus I once asked you about why you had long hair. I don't remember all the words you said but the gist of what you told me was that hair was like a friend. It was a friend that didn't leave you and if a part of it was lost, it could grow right back so you wouldn't be lonely for too long. There was also something about holding lock picks in it but I hadn't paid too much attention to that until I was older, much older."

"_Fuckin' sap_," Solo said. "_Take e'erthing seriously._"

"Fuck you too," Duo said good-naturedly with a grin that quickly left. "But when I think about it, I didn't start keeping my hair in a braid until I started living at the Church. The nun there wanted to cut it off, I said no, raised up holy hell, and she agreed to compromise. She taught me how to braid it and since hair wasn't always getting in my eyes anymore, I decided to keep it."

"Holy hell," Solo repeated, musing on those words. "You learned a lot from the person I was a long time ago didn't you."

"I did," Duo affirmed, his throat growing dry. "I've…learned a lot from you too," he admitted.

"What did you learn?" Solo asked.

Slowing the car down to a crawl, Duo turned to face the blond and look him dead in the eye. "I learned what it was to be you."

Nothing more needed to be said on that and after Duo increased their speed again, the blond asked him to talk again. A few minutes later, they were pulling up to the spaceport, the same one from which they had arrived here.

Helping Solo out of the car, he let the guy lean on him as he helped him towards the main building. Along the way, they passed by the same shuttle driver that had picked them up on their arrival. The man shook his head at them, commenting on junkies stinking the place up as he continued on his route.

There was no relief in Duo's body as he passed through one of the many entrances. He could feel people staring at them, wondering what a couple like them were doing here, having the gall in interrupt their otherwise business-as-usual day. Used to having such stares, Duo easily ignored them as he walked both him and Solo to a check-in/ticket purchase counter. The woman looked at them with a strained smile on her face while a whistling man with a mustache leaned on the counter nearby.

With as much dignity as he could, Duo said, "We have…three tickets for Farrell here."

"Farrell," the woman repeated as her fingers tapping on various keys rapidly, her long nails clattering against them. It always amazed Duo just how fast these people could type. Not even Heero at his best could match that speed. "Here, reserved tickets under the name Farrell. Can I have some I.D. gentlemen?"

"There's no need for that," the whistling man spoke up, at Duo's side in an instance. "I can vouch for these men's identities."

"And you would be?" Duo asked, eyeing the man warily.

"The third Farrell ticket," the mustached man answered. "I'm your escort."

"Right," Duo said.

"Do you need any other verification?" the man asked the receptionist. The woman shifted her weight uncomfortable but that strained smile never left her face.

"Let me make a call, sir," the woman said as she picked up a phone, calling up management.

Duo eyed the mustached man suspiciously, wondering who he was. He had never met this man before so he couldn't make an accurate guess as to what kind of person he was. There was the rigid military stance but a lot of people had that. Those eyes of steel however were warning enough to him not to cross this man.

"Here are your tickets, sirs," the receptionist said, handing the three the thick pieces of paper once she had placed the phone down. "Sorry for any inconvenience."

There was hardly any other than the wait. Duo had a feeling that someone higher up had given the okay either through duress or someone in the law was prompting them. Letting someone on a shuttle without identity verification was completely stupid but then again Duo had set things up to allow this thing to happen.

"Come with me," the man ordered them. "We're running late."

Right. Late. They had plenty of time to spare if what the ticket said was true. Launch at any time. You had to pay a lot to get such a status so where did these people get that kind of capital?

"What's the hurry?" Duo asked almost sarcastically, shouldering Solo.

"Your 'friend' doesn't look so well," the man replied at a fast clip. "We have some 'medicine' that would give him some relief."

"Yes, feed the habit," Duo muttered.

"The only other alternative is death," the man stated.

"You know, that's something I've been curious about. How can you do this to another human being?" Duo asked, giving the man a pointed look.

"It's easy; he's not human," the man said as he increased his pace.

Duo didn't know if he had imagined it but had the man grimaced before he spoke? Did he not agree entirely with what he had just said? A potential weakness, Duo thought, as he filed that away. It might come in handy later.

After going through the long process of getting passed the security checkpoint and being prodded by a spaceport personnel who had trouble believing that yes he was a guy, they arrived at their gate in what seemed like no time. An attendant nodded at them with that same fake smile that seemed to be contagious in spaceports and before they knew it, Duo was leading Solo down a small corridor and onto the shuttle.

Ducking his head slightly so that he didn't bump it against the entrance way, Duo suddenly found it harder to manage Solo against his side as space had become severely limited. He had only about a three feet aisle to work with so he tackled this latest obstacle by walking sideways through it.

He noted the armed men who were watching the two of them like hawks and Duo had already done the calculations to know that this was not a good place to get into a gunfight. If only he could have brought a gun or a knife. In order to get the weapons they had on them, he had mailed them to this Colony knowing how lax the postal service was. All he needed was a post office box and a name and they were golden.

Now it was a different story. How they managed to keep security off this shuttle was quite a question.

The man that had been their guide approached a man who looked to be in his late fifties, maybe early sixties, who had this clinical air about him, like he was a doctor about to give you a physical examination. Glancing up at their escort, the clinical man said, "Welcome back Commander. I see that we're all set, correct?"

"We're ready," their escort whose name probably wasn't Commander answered gruffly. "Just a matter of launch."

"Then let's commence," the clinical man said before turning his attention to the two of them. "Ah, Prototype #0111, it's been some time."

"Where's the Lyrithine?" Duo demanded. "I'm only here because you are the only ones who can help him"

"Interesting, you refer to this prototype as another person," the clinical man noted. "I can assure you, whoever you are, that the thing beside you is not human despite the physical appearance."

"Oh, I can see you making friends everywhere," Duo scoffed as he settled Solo into a seat. "You must be a favorite at all the parties."

"Anything that distracts from the pursuit of science is frivolous," the clinical man replied.

"You know, I have a hunch," Duo said. "You look like a Wallace. Am I right?"

"You would be correct," Wallace answered.

"Derrick Wallace to be exact, right?" Duo dug.

"Again, correct," Wallace answered.

"So you're the guy, the head honcho, the big cheese," Duo said. "You're the one behind Project Goliath and everything. Read your work, kind of dry for my tastes."

"Everyone is a critic," Wallace said dryly. "Since you know who I am, may you, pray tell, give me your name?"

"Why would you care about pleasantries?" Duo retorted. "They're frivolous since they do nothing for the 'pursuit of science'."

"You're a bit of a prick, aren't you," Wallace stated. "I had thought that trying to be polite would put you at ease. It wasn't like I don't know who you are, Duo Maxwell. Your wanted poster was pasted all over the Colonies."

"Great, you know my name," Duo snarked. "Can you get on with helping Solo here? Wait, forgive me, your 'prototype'."

Wallace gave Solo a quick once over. "It wouldn't do any good at this point. He's too far gone into withdrawal. Still so that we're not distracted by the spasms, I'll allow some alleviation."

By that point, a young looking man who might have been an intern or something approached with a syringe full of a clear liquid that had a bluish tint to it. Duo hadn't actually seen Lyrithine before but by looking at it, Duo instinctually believed that that substance in no way belonged in the human body.

Watching as the man rolled up Solo's sleeve and stuck the needle into a barely seen vein, Duo asked, "Aren't you going to rub that with alcohol or anything?"

"As I said before, there's no point," Wallace stated. "The only thing that would reverse the withdrawal process would be a larger amount of Lyrithine being injected straight into the heart. That by itself is suicidal as a human heart wouldn't be able to withstand the strain that Lyrithine has on the body. Lyrithine affects muscles, Mr. Maxwell, and the heart is a muscle."

"How would you know that?" Duo demanded, glaring at Wallace.

"Experience," Wallace staying, leaving the implications of that statement out in the open.

"Has anyone ever told you how sick of a fuck you are?" Duo sneered.

"Plenty," Wallace shrugged. Looking around Duo, the doctor asked, "Commander Farrell, would you ensure that our guests are seated and accommodated?"

Their mustached escort held his gun out, training it on the still standing Duo. "You heard the doc. Take a seat Mr. Maxwell. We'll be leaving port in the next few minutes."

"How can you let this man do this? How could you ever agree to getting involved with this?" Duo demanded but took a seat right next to Solo whose symptoms were lessening for the moment.

"This world isn't black or white, son," Commander Farrell stated. "There isn't a side that's right or wrong, good or evil, just those who can and those who won't."

* * *

><p>"They're taking off," Heero announced. "Time's up, we need to move."<p>

"Deploy all shuttles currently able to follow," Trowa ordered into a communicator. "The target has left the docking port and has begun their route."

"Make sure that no one does anything to alert them to their tail," Wufei advised, arms crossed over his chest. "We can't afford to spook them."

"Indeed," Heero said as he shut his laptop. Once they were out in the reaches of space, he would open it again. He wouldn't have closed it in the first place but even in this day and age, it was procedure to turn off or mute all electronic devices so they didn't interfere with the cockpit equipment.

The chase had begun.

* * *

><p>Despite all the stress and the tenseness of the situation, Duo was bored as he sat in a small, air locked tube surrounded by armed men who were more than willing to blow his brains out if he made one wrong move.<p>

Been there, done that.

So yeah, he was bored. He had no idea where they were going and he knew no one would shoot at him because they didn't want to risk shooting one of the windows out. It would kill them all. But you're probably asking why he hadn't gotten out of his seat yet and started kicking ass. Well, besides the fact he was outnumbered, Solo was not in any shape to back him up and all it would take is someone shooting him in the chest, the bullet going into the seat if it exited his body.

A safe shot and not one Duo wanted to risk. He was in this to get Solo here out alive, not insure his execution.

He could hear mumbling from Wallace, most likely some kind of sciencey stuff or calculations. Lots of mutters and it didn't seem like the asshole was keen on sharing. Duo wasn't in the mindset to try to take the guy on intellectually so he decided another target for his boredom was needed.

Nearby, the so-called Commander Farrell sat, staring straight ahead with his arms crossed, as stiff as ever. Sure, his body posture screamed stoicism and "leave me the fuck alone" but that was always something Duo saw as a challenge. Heero gave him that kind of vibe all the time and that hadn't stopped him from irritating the other pilot before.

"Hey," he shot at the commander, if that was really his army rank. When Farrell didn't answer him, Duo tried again. Again, the cold shoulder. Well, two could play that game but Duo liked to bend the rules of any game as far as he could.

"Man, what kind of flight is this?" he complained out loud. "No in-flight movie, no cute stewardesses, not even a Goddamn peanut! Even the cheap lines give you a peanut! What kind of spaceline are you guys trying to operate?"

"This isn't a pleasure flight," Farrell spoke curtly. "I expected more maturity from an alleged Gundam pilot but you are severely disappointing me."

"Wow, sounds like I had a fan," Duo rolled his eyes. "Key word being had. Tell me, what would you expect of a Gundam pilot. I have got to hear this."

"A level of professionalism and discipline," Farrell snapped at him, turning in his seat to send him a glare.

"Sorry to burst your bubble but professionalism and discipline were not hallmarks of my training," Duo chuckled. "I was taught to think on my feet and in particular cause as much damage as I could. Things like a strict regimen like you find at boot camp were completely absent but that was just for me. You'd have to ask the other pilots for theirs. We were all trained differently, you see."

"Is that so?" Farrell said.

"Yeah, I mean one of us didn't have any 'Gundam pilot' training! He literally became a pilot at the last minute," Duo said, throwing the commander a wink. "In fact, the myth that we all had some kind of secretive special training is a misconception but we don't advertise it. Keeps a mystique about us, ya know? A couple of us got a crash course in Mobile Suit piloting, got a pat on the head, and were told to raise hell to the Alliance."

"Do you really expect me to believe that?" Farrell snorted.

"Do you really expect highly disciplined men who won't take a piss without permission to be able to improvise like we did?" Duo challenged. "I was fucking fifteen when I piloted. Ever wonder why there were no thirty year-olds? They're too set in the way things were at the time and are too predictable. That and easily bribed."

"They picked children over adults because children are easier to manipulate," Farrell stated dryly. "Young people don't understand how complicated the world is and possess ideals that are impractical and unrealistic."

"So playing guard to some highly illegal science project that wants to make giant machines of destruction obsolete by replacing them with soft-bodied clones is realistic?" Duo snarked. "I thought I could be bullheaded. Or maybe the word is delusional. What do you think?"

"You know nothing," Farrell snarled at him.

"Then enlighten me," Duo said. "Go ahead, I'm your captive audience. What don't I get?"

"It's above you," Wallace said from behind, interjecting himself into the conversation.

"Above me? Is it because I'm someone who doesn't appreciate the lows you will go to fulfill some twisted fantasy? Is that it?" Duo exclaimed.

"This isn't about fantasy, Mr. Maxwell, it's about progress," Wallace stated. "Do you know when it is that humanity progresses beyond its current status quo? It's during war. War has inspired and forced humans to advance its civilization and society to boundaries never before thought of. Science progresses as we discover faster ways to heal those wounded, discover new forms of communication, invent propulsion engines that can move us vast distances in the shortest amount of time, and explore the full limitations of the human body and psyche.

"War is necessary for human progress because in times of peace, humanity stagnates. When there is no threat to advance one's specie, why do anything? Regardless of current policies, history is on our side. War is inevitable. In more than six thousand years of human history, did you know that there have only been five real years of actual world peace? Trying to change the most basic desires of humanity is a futile effort. What we are doing is to create the next stepping stone that will advance us to new boundaries unheard of before."

"Do you agree with this guy?" Duo asked, directing his question to Farrell.

"Is there anything that is factually wrong with what he said?" Farrell answered with a question.

"Does that even matter?" Duo demanded. "You're talking about putting us back into war here. Nobody likes war! Have you already forgotten how bad the last ones were?"

"The war known as World War II was just as 'bad' as the last ones," Wallace answered, "but that didn't stop humanity from starting new ones after. As soon as one war ends, another begins."

"You're all crazy, you know that?" Duo spat. "How can you justify this with all that crap? Don't you have any kind of morality?"

"Surprising to hear that from a mass murderer," Wallace quipped. "Before you lecture me on ethics, you should first consider the sins on your soul. How many people have you killed with that Mobile Suit of yours, that Gundam?"

"Once you take a life, you lose all rights to declare morality," Farrell agreed with reluctance. "The only lives that were lost until now were those of clones. Test tube spawn. Until you started killing my men, which I still seek some reimbursement for with your blood, there had been no loss of life."

"Just because you're born from a test tube does not make you any less of a human," Duo said lowly. Checking something from the corner of his eye, he continued, "I don't really know where you stand on your subordinates but that guy over there looks really uncomfortable. If I were to guess, he was a test tube baby." The way said soldier jerked in his seat with a fearful expression on his face only confirmed the braided one's guess. "Made in a test tube like so many but he walks, talks, acts like a regular human being. From what I got from you, you don't like test tube babies. Probably see them less as human."

"First of all, there's nothing wrong with being conceived that way," Farrell stated. "Second, in order for someone to be conceived in that fashion, they need the genetic material from two willing donors, the parents. They are just as human as the rest of us."

"So then how did you guys clone Solo?" Duo asked. "I read the reports; they implied they had donors for their genetic material, meaning more than one person donated. Meaning they need both a guy and a girl to make it. You can't create a baby with the DNA of two men or two women alone. You need at minimum one man and one woman. Period."

Farrell looked like he was about to argue but Duo saw that his point was starting to strike home. The man was really starting to think about this. However, before Duo could see just how far the army man was going to go with it, Wallace interrupted them once again.

"You're very perceptive Mr. Maxwell," Wallace said.

"Am I right or dead wrong?" Duo asked, turning in his seat to look back at the aged asshole.

"You're right," Wallace confirmed. "We only needed one sample strand of DNA and while we could have just taken DNA from one person, I thought it better to combine two different sets of DNA from two choice specimens. The first clone really was what is called a 'test tube baby' but everything after that was cloning."

"Yeah, and you tried to perfect that DNA too," Duo pointed out bitterly.

"We didn't perfect the DNA, we replaced different sequences with ones taken from other strands of DNA," Wallace said. "It was tricky blending every sequence into the final product but in the end we prevailed."

"If I didn't know any better that sounds a lot like how people have kids outside of their family," Duo mused out loud. "New DNA entered into the gene pool and what not."

"I fail to see what this has to do with anything," Wallace said.

Of course he wouldn't but Duo wasn't just talking about this crap just to do so. He could see how more tense Farrell was becoming. Duo could tell that he was reaching the commander and the longer the man stewed in his rhetoric, the more uneasy he would become with Project Goliath.

Divide your enemies first then conquer each one individually. He had learned that strategy from Trowa, believe it or not. That, though, was a story for another time.

"All this shit about DNA and cloning and stuff, it makes me wonder how they hell you're paying for it," Duo said. "The Alliance is gone; this thing should have been scraped with everything else when OZ took over."

"We've had various benefactors," Wallace answered. "There are people still left who believe in my work."

"So someone's still paying your bills eh? Care to tell me who?" Duo asked. It wouldn't do him any good to know and that was the logic he hoped Wallace would use. He had no doubts that now that Wallace had him where he wanted him, he was going to do away with him. The fact he was still alive was in and of itself a mystery.

"He likes to remain anonymous," Wallace shrugged as he looked back down at some figures. "Never met him face to face but he has been most generous. He was the one to lend us this shuttle as well as our base of operations if that term can be applied."

Naturally it was someone rich but who? Wallace wasn't giving him anything here! Duo still did plan to get through this alive and he rather do so with a name of someone he could visit later and cause an accident to.

Beside him, completely silent, Solo did nothing but breathe, his eyes closed as he seemed to focus on every single breath he took.

* * *

><p>They had been following for nearly two standard hours and they were still in pursuit. Trowa was beginning to wonder just where they were being led to. He could see that Wufei was getting antsy and Heero was looking up the current locations of every Colony, trying to find one that would hint at what to expect.<p>

He could see Heero's brow creasing but nothing else from his fellow pilot.

Trowa had to remind himself that space was a big place and they could be going anywhere at this point. The fact that Heero had confirmed they weren't heading towards Earth still left a lot of places they could be heading.

Thus far they had left the L2 sector of space and entered into L1. After that, Trowa had no clue where they were. L1, the section of space where the first Colonies had been established. Of course over time some of those Colonies had to be abandoned due to advances in space technology as well as newer and more efficient Colonies were launched.

It took a lot of money to support one of these things. And before you asked, Heero was looking into abandoned Colonies as well. So far, nothing.

"Sirs, the pilot just reported that something large as come up on radar," a fellow agent reported just as Heero sat straight in his seat, a sign that he had just found something out.

Perhaps Trowa had thought too soon.

"Have the pilots a visual?" Wufei demanded.

"Yes sir, it looks like a Colony," the agent said.

"It's not a Colony," Heero cut in. "It's an old military outpost, Fortress Sigma. Established in After Colony 58, abandoned in After Colony 167 due to shortfalls in the Alliance's budget. Because it was in a sector with little to no rebel activity, the fortress was shut down and the money removed was used to fund Fortress Barge."

"No one would think to look in an abandoned military fortress," Trowa commented.

"And now someone has started it up again," Wufei concluded.

"What's our ETA?" Heero demanded of their fellow agent. "More importantly, what's our target's ETA?"

"Back in a minute," the agent said as he returned to the cockpit.

Regardless of what it would be, Trowa began checking up on his gear, making sure he was ready. He had no doubt that once they were in, they would meet resistance.


	20. Chapter 20

Author's Note: Everything has lead up to this, the climax. A lot of liberties have been taken with this chapter so a little suspension of disbelief might be needed. Still, I couldn't work things out any better than I did here. As a result, you get a long chapter that I could have broken into halves. However, as things moved along, I couldn't bear to break them up; the chapter flowed too seamlessly to do that. I believe it makes the story as a whole better keeping it as one chapter. Together we got action, suspense, medical drama, everything needed to boost the almighty ratings. Might have made a couple things up in that previous sentence. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Warning: language, violence, death

Chapter 20

When a space shuttle came to a stop, it wasn't obvious but somehow you always knew. Maybe there was this insignificant shudder that you barely felt but still recognized or maybe it was some change in the cabin pressure. It could have been anything but it still remained that they had indeed stopped.

Of course there was also the big giveaway in the small window beside them where something large and metallic blocked the view of space.

"Let me guess, we've arrived at the secret lair," Duo said sarcastically.

"Hardly a secret," Wallace replied as he walked past the seated ex-pilot.

Duo raised an eyebrow at the scientist before glancing around to see that he had an armed guard watching his every move. That guard, naturally, consisted of a handful of men but that was just nitpicking there.

"Hey," he spoke softly to the blond at his side. "Ready to stretch a little?"

Solo opened tired green eyes and nodded at him. Duo felt a twist in his gut at just how exhausted the blond looked. This whole thing was really taking a toll on him.

He helped Solo out of his seat and guided him out of the shuttle. Unlike when they boarded, Duo hadn't needed to be physical crutch as Solo was managing the walk unaided. Still, Duo remained close in case of a stumble.

The moment they debarked, Duo was taking in their new surroundings. He could see they were in some large docking bay, not commercial like those found in a Colony so it had to be some kind of military installation. Yeah, he could see other empty docks, the wide space that enabled a lot of traffic as well as movement of large objects, and the larger than necessary entrances. Also, with the exception of a faded Alliance emblem, there were no decorations that could be seen. At least on a Colony, they tried to make it homely, like you would find the same place on Earth.

Duo supposed that if you wanted to create a large army of super soldier clones, an old military base was the perfect place.

Up ahead he could see Wallace giving some instructions to some armed men which stuck him as funny. Shouldn't he be speaking with some other sciency guy instead? Well, Farrell was over there, looking troubled. Wonder what was on the guy's mind.

Turning away from his men, Wallace waved for the duo to be brought over, a gun barrel nudging him in the back telling Duo to start moving. Glancing Solo over, Duo did as he was bidden, Solo obeying as well.

As they were escorted, someone else in a labcoat entered the docking bay, heading towards Wallace with purposeful strides. He reached the older scientist before Duo or Solo did but Duo didn't have to be close in order to hear the newcomer say, "The MIRS is powered up and operational. What are your instructions, doctor?"

"Yeah, what are your instructions, doctor?" Duo mimicked. "Your welcoming committee has not been the most welcoming that I have seen."

Wallace glanced at him, his clear blue eyes magnified by his horn-rimmed glasses as he looked him over. "It would do you well to remain silent, Mr. Maxwell. Right now I see no point in keeping you alive. If you have no purpose then you will need to be terminated. We do not have the necessary resources to keep you here as a guest."

"Over my dead body," Solo cut in, taking a step forward as positioned himself protectively in front of Duo. It had been the first time he had spoken since they arrived at the spaceport so those who had been around him were a bit spooked by it. Judging by how they tightened their grips on their guns, Duo knew one wrong move would definitely get them killed.

Wallace must have seen this too because he immediately snapped, "Hold your fire." It was the first time the man had spoken without that dead, clinical tone of his but apparently the armed men recognized his tone because their grips loosened. Wallace stared down Solo, looking for all the world like some disappointed parent. "Stop being insubordinate Solo," he ordered. "This is a not a good time for this."

"It looks like the perfect time to me," Solo stated with an accent before Duo could say it. Huh, he had been about to say the same thing. Were they on the same wavelength now or something?

"You're beginning to frustrate me," Wallace warned. "When did you begin developing this rebelliousness?"

"I have a good teacher," Solo responded. "You won't hurt him."

"Your language has devolved," Wallace snapped. "It's fortunate we managed to retrieve you; we can at least salvage something out of this that hasn't been corrupted."

"He's not a freakin' computer, asshole," Duo snarled. "He has feelings too."

"Emotions are a vulnerability that need to be purged," Wallace stated. "It shouldn't have developed any." Pausing, Wallace added, "I believe we may have found the principal corrupting factor."

"Yep, that's me, totally corrupted," Duo scoffed.

"You may have done me a service returning my prototype back but I believe that there is no further use for you," Wallace said, glowering at the ex-pilot.

Not needing to see how a few of the men were tensing, ready to cut him down with some well-placed shots, Duo said, "Let me guess, this is the part where you say 'kill him'. I'd be careful if I were you; you'll hit Solo."

"So long as his brain is undamaged, I can live with that," Wallace stated.

"Hold up, you're really considering tossing him to a side like he some kind of tool?" Duo stated incredulously.

"That's because it is a tool," Wallace said.

"I'm not a thing," Solo argued.

"That is not for you to decide," Wallace replied.

"Since when has human life mattered so little to you?" Duo demanded.

"Because Solo isn't human, end of story," Wallace stated.

"How can you be so sure?" Duo asked. "He looks like he's about to throw himself at you and break your neck. He has feelings and emotions; he not some mindless machine that you built!" Turning towards Farrell, he demanded, "How can you let this happen? How can you stand there and let this bastard playing with human lives like they mean nothing?"

"Why are you speaking to him? You're irrationality is beginning to worry me," Wallace commented. "Perhaps it would be best to put you down."

"What person talks about another like they're some animal that needs to be euthanized?" Duo continued his verbal assault on Farrell. "If you think you're safe, you're wrong. I've seen this before. First it's somebody you don't like, then somebody you don't know, next it's your friend, and then it's you who's being put down."

"Ignore him," Wallace commanded to Farrell. "He's been nothing but a pest this entire time. Pests need to be exterminated, Commander."

"He's eventually gonna run out of stuff to make clones," Duo railed. "Wherever he's getting his stuff is going to run out, then what will he do? He's been at this for how long? If he can't make his clones, he'll start another project to make his super soldiers and it'll be you and your men who pays!"

"Now that is science fiction," Wallace cut in. Glancing irritably at his men, he demanded, "What are you doing standing there? Eradicate him."

Time was running out. Wallace's armed men were about to put an end to this and Duo was getting desperate. He maybe had a second or two before it was game over.

"Where do think he got the information he put into my head?" Solo asked, figuring out what he was doing. "Not all of it came from the clones that came before me."

Farrell's eyes darted towards Wallace at that. "What's he talking about?"

"Ignore that faulty prototype," Wallace commanded.

"Young men in army camps," Solo continued. "Older than any of the clones sent out. Their reflexes are ingrained into my brain."

"It is malfunctioning," Wallace warned, giving Solo a hard look that was ordering the blond to shut up.

"Humans can't repress their memories forever," Duo chimed in. "Sooner or later, they always come back."

"What memories is he talking about?" Farrell demanded.

"None of this is your concern—" Wallace began to say before he was interrupted.

"Answer me!" Farrell bellowed, glaring full out at Wallace.

Wallace stared the Commander down before answering, "It was simpler to take the memories of combat training instead of trying to use the theoretical instructions. A couple of your men volunteered."

"Volunteered my ass!" Farrell roared. "What did you do with them?"

"They were already dead; I thought it would be best to take whatever experiences they had and not let them go to waste," Wallace explained.

"How dare you?" Farrell snarled.

"Control yourself Commander," Wallace ordered.

"Give me a reason why I shouldn't shoot you?" Farrell demanded as he reached for his gun. Automatically, the armed men that had served as spectators turned their weapons on Farrell who froze, eyes darting around wondering what was going on. The men closest to the Commander turned their guns towards their comrades, confused about what was happening but determined to protect their superior.

"Once again you're disappointing me," Wallace said coolly as he eyed Farrell like he was a bug. "Why are you allowing yourself to lose control? You stand to gain so much by assisting me."

"That was before I knew what you were hiding from me," Farrell spat. "These men trusted me to keep them safe." Glaring at the men who were aiming at him, he roared, "Stand down!"

They didn't obey his order.

"Shit's about to go down," Duo mumbled to Solo as he moved closer to the blond.

"Stand down!" Farrell ordered again, his frustration growing.

"These men will not listen to you," Wallace informed the Commander. "I have worried about your commitment to Project Goliath due to your recent behavior. Our benefactor had the same concern and loaned me some of his men to ensure that you would not interfere."

Ooh, betrayal. Duo watched with fascination at this unforeseen development. It looked like there had already been some dissention between Farrell and Wallace beforehand. Now it was all coming to a head.

"Now do as I say and stand down, Commander," Wallace said. "I believe the term I need to use here is 'I'm relieving you of your command.'"

Farrell narrowed his eyes and echoed Solo. "Over my dead body."

He gripped the handle of his firearm and pulled it out.

The roar of gunfire was deafening as bullets zoomed on either side of Duo and Solo, miraculously not hitting either of them while tearing down Farrell and the men still loyal to him. It was over in less than thirty seconds but the damage on Farrell's side had been devastating. All that was left standing were those in Wallace and his benefactor's employ.

Though there were fewer men, the two of them were still outnumbered and faced with hostiles waiting to take them down if they made one wrong move.

"A pity," Wallace commented. "He had so much to gain from my work. Human emotion destroyed him."

Turning his gaze from the mess of corpses, Duo could read on the man's face "now what should I do with you?"

Moving in front of Solo, he hissed to the blond, "Grab my head." Hesitating for a second, Solo obeyed. "Tighter!" Duo hissed again.

"What do you think you're doing?" Wallace asked curiously.

"I know we're next, aren't we?" Duo said. "You're trying to decide what you're going to do? Well, I have a proposition for you. Give Solo the help he needs and I'll let you take whatever memories you want out of my head."

"I don't need you alive for that," Wallace stated.

"But you need my brain intact," Duo fired back. "If Solo is anything like those freaks you sent after us, he can take a lot of bullets. I bet he'll be able to squeeze my head in and scramble my brains. All my precious experience as a Gundam pilot wasted."

That stopped Wallace up short as he thought about it. Duo eyed the scientist warily as he felt Solo increase the pressure on his head, understanding what the braided one was offering.

"Better decide quick," Duo warned. "I saw this guy pull a helicopter out of the sky with his bare hands. My skull doesn't stand a chance against that. Probably is cracking right now."

Wallace held up a hand, signaling to his men to not fire. "Now that I think about it, we've never put a live subject in the MIRS before. It'll be interesting to find out how you'll respond."

"Only as long as you help Solo," Duo stated. Already, Duo could feel Solo's arms trembling, the pressure on his skull easing slightly. The small dose they had given the blond was already starting to wear off.

Wallace eyed them both before straightening and said, "Very well. Release him."

The last bit had been directed to Solo and Duo smirked when the blond disregarded that order. He saw Wallace narrow his eyes at the act of insubordination but Duo knew they shouldn't press this man. He might decide to go back on his word and seeing how he treated his own allies…

"You can let go now," Duo said, Solo complying.

"If you'll follow me," Wallace directed as he spun on his heel, heading for one of the large doorways that led deeper into the military fortress.

With no other alternative and guns aimed at them, the duo followed.

* * *

><p>The docking bay was silent but for a moment. The silence was interrupted as several Preventers shuttles closed in and docked with Fortress Sigma. From the transport corridors, several agents emerged, armed to the teeth and ready for a fight.<p>

"Secure the bay," Yuy directed. "I want as many agents that can be spared brought here. Those that can't board will form a perimeter around the fortress. I don't want anything leaving. Anyone that tries flying out of here without authorization is to be destroyed. No exceptions."

Wufei nodded and scurried about the place with the rest of the assembled agents. With how vacant the bay was, it was child's play for the contingent to reach each entrance and spy down the hallways in search of any guards.

It was almost pathetic how fast the "clears" were coming in. Whoever was in charge of this place was not securing their loading area.

Maybe the area of sprawled bodies might explain the lack of security. Barton was already examining the scene and as Wufei approached him, his fellow agent was just starting to follow a blood trail that led to yet another corpse. Someone had dragged themselves away from the carnage and their trail led directly to a wounded man whose life was literally spilling out of him.

"We have a live one," Barton said as he came to the wounded man's side, examining his wounds, trying to find the best way to stop the bleeding.

Watching the mustached man warily, Wufei made sure his pistol was out and in plain sight as he crouched next to the man.

The man's breathing was shallow and blood stained the right side of his face, discoloring his facial hair. His face was scrunched up in pain and his exhales were coming out as gasps. Wufei could tell that the man was already dead; his body had yet to catch up with that fact.

"What happened?" he asked of the man.

"Christ, what have I done?" the mustached man gasped out, grimacing in agony. "I never thought he'd…Oh God…"

"Listen to me, what happened?" Wufei urged.

"You have to…stop him," the wounded man pleaded. "He'll put him in that machine…copy all his memories…"

"Who's responsible for this?" Barton pressed.

"No time," the wounded man said. "Take the…take the exit second from my left. Corridor, one, two, three, four. Take lift, one, two. Right, second corridor, right."

"Stay with me," Wufei insisted but whatever strength the man had was gone. His breathing slowed until it stopped altogether, the pupils of his opened eyes dilating until they covered his irises.

He was dead.

"Wufei. Trowa," Yuy said, coming up from behind him.

"Not much," Barton reported. "Another casualty. He told us to take the exit second from his left and to hurry."

"Did he say anything else?" Yuy asked.

"Instructions on where to go," Barton said.

"Take the lead," Yuy ordered.

* * *

><p>Duo had read quite about MIRS before but now he was actually seeing it. He didn't know exactly what he was expecting but whatever it was, the reality was way below his expectations.<p>

How was a table with wrist, ankle, and head clamps supposed to take information out of your head?

Well, there were all these computers and electronic equipment about the place along with a few men in labcoats running around, setting things up, but Duo still remained underwhelmed.

As if knowing what he was thinking about, Wallace began to explain. "When we were first testing the MIRS, we found that their bodies would jerk about regardless of their dead state. As you can see, nothing about this setup consists of metal, a necessity since we will be sending large amount of electricity into your cranial cavity."

"Before you go on putting me in ol' Sparky here, where's the Lyrithine?" Duo requested.

"It'll be here momentarily," Wallace said as he clasped his hands behind his back.

Turning his attention to Solo, who he could see was starting to experience the muscle spasms, he rested a hand on one of the blond's shoulders and squeezed. "Take a seat, you look like shit," he told him.

"Feel like it," Solo replied, sweated beading on his forehead. "I don't like this."

"I'm not going to let you die," Duo said, ignoring the snort from Wallace. Muttering a "fuck off," he added, "I let you die once. I'm not going to let it happen again."

"Can't let go?" Solo asked.

"Won't," Duo corrected. "And don't want to."

"Ya did once," Solo said.

"No choice then" Duo replied. "Sit down. Don't waste your energy trying to look strong. It's better to be strong than to look it. 'Sides, you'll save your energy for when you need it."

Caving into the persuasion, Solo allowed himself to sink to his knees and then plop onto his ass. His breathing was already heavier and Duo really began to wonder how he was going to pull this off.

One of their guards who had watched the whole thing, sneered and mumbles "Faggots." Duo sent him the evil eye, making a note that before all was said and through, he was going to stick something long and sharp into that asshole's gut.

"Look at the damage you've done," Wallace commented, capturing Duo's attention though he refused to face the bastard. "My prized creation brought down and made pathetic. You're making this harder and harder to salvage."

"You know what you could do? Why don't you and fairy boy over there go fuck each other and have a little tea party? It might loosen you guys up," Duo snapped at Wallace. The guard he had insulted looked ready to kill him but a stone cold look from Wallace prevented any violence from occurring.

"Interesting. Despite the odds you continue to provoke the ones who can harm you," Wallace commented. "I might look into adding that into my next prototype. Determination like that has the potential to do wonders."

From across the room, a door hissed open and a lab technician wheeled in a cart that held two massive syringing, each filled to the brim with Lyrithine. Just looking at those things gave Duo a small heart attack, especially since in order for one of those things to have the best effect on Solo, it had to be injected straight into the heart.

"Punctual as always," Wallace said as he sent that clinical gaze to his assistant. Looking back at Duo, he said, "Dr. Itsumi will administer the Lyrithine to Solo but first you must fulfill your end of our deal."

Switching his gaze from Wallace to MIRS and back again, Duo knew he had very little choice. "Fine. But as soon as I'm in, you have to give him the dose."

Squeezing Solo's shoulder one last time, Duo stepped away from the collapsed blond and headed towards the table upon which he was to lay on. He felt like he was on his way to his execution, similar to one of those old movies where a convict is walked to an electric chair or gas chamber. Considered archaic nowadays, it still didn't change the feeling.

He let himself be cuffed to the table that he could now tell was made of some kind of plastic. In some ways, it was kind of slippery.

A paste was liberally applied to his forehead, painted into his hair when no more visible skin could be found. Duo wondered for a bit if they should have shaved him or something but then again, he knew he would have fought tooth and nail against that.

Something was placed onto his head then. He didn't get a good look at it but it felt like they were putting some kind of hat on his head. There was a tightening sensation as whatever it was was strapped on. The next thing he felt was someone sticking and poking things into the thin, cloth-like thing that had been put on his head. He figured that they had to be wires due to what he had read about MIRS beforehand. All his memories were about to be put into a computer so it was logical that it had to be connected to one.

Lastly, two assistants adjusted the head clamp to immobilize his head. Duo felt very vulnerable at that point. There he was laying on some table, his ankles and wrists restrained and his head held still with some probably freaky-looking thing on his head.

"Is everything ready?" Wallace asked, at some point having moved to a terminal.

"Hey, you forgetting something?" Duo spoke, trying and failing to look at the doctor. That was when someone shoved something into his mouth, silencing him.

He didn't get an answer though, at least not from Wallace. Blinding pain blasted into his head as electricity flowed through every neural pathway that he had. His brain was overstimulated all at once and was going haywire as so many portions of his brain activated and deactivated and reactivated again and again.

Duo learned how to talk, forgot how, and regained the ability in an instant and the same could be said for a number of things. Breathing, walking, eating, seeing, hearing, feeling. He was awake, he was asleep, he felt pleasure for a second but then was overwhelmed completely by pain. Every nerve in his body was shrieking as fire seemed to enter every crevice that it could find.

_He was held tightly by massive hands that dragged him out of the storage day, fighting every step of the way as he screamed his lungs out. "LEGGO! LEMME GO!" He scratched, he kicked, he even tried to bite, anything to get himself free so that he could try and hide on the space vessel that he had illegally boarded._

_It was as he was being dragged by two obviously older men when his captors stopped as one commanded "Let him go."_

_Looking at the man with a strange, oversized bowl cut, one of his captors began to protest._

_The strange man reissued his order and finally the small ragamuffin was release, though not without a scowl to the men who had handled him._

"_Kid…I'm impressed you were able to sneak aboard. My security system should have been perfect," the strange man said, his narrowed eyes focused solely on him. He saw a scar under the man's right eye that made him much creepier than any person should be. The boy squared his shoulders as he stood tall, pride swelling in his chest. "How did you do it?"_

"That's_ a trade secret," he boasted as he wagged a finger condescendingly. "But if it helps your pride, I'll say it was pretty tough."_

_The old man smirked, chuckling at him. "You're an interesting kid."_

_His ego pricked, the boy proclaimed, "I'm no kid! My name's Duo. Duo Maxwell, who may run and hide, but never tells a lie!"_

_The old man was not impressed. "Maxwell…? Like Maxwell's Demon, eh?"_

_Taking his turn to smirk, Duo Maxwell corrected, "Nope, not just a demon." Without any sign of humility or modesty, he stated for all ears to hear, "I'm the God of Death."_

A white flash.

_Explosions lit up the night sky, sliced and diced Leos littering the attacked base. Though the alarmed blared, there was little to no activity. Those that could fight no longer could and those that couldn't were crushed under those that had fallen._

_Smoke reached for the stars in wispy tendrils as a sole Mobile Suit stood out among the carnage, approaching the base's power station. Raising a long staff from which a thermal beam arched from, the Mobile Suit sliced through the power station, the following explosions destroying everything inside._

_From within the dark Gundam's cockpit, Duo Maxwell spoke in a hissed whisper, "Anyone who gets in my way has a date with his maker."_

Another blinding wave of pain.

_A small dirtied boy jerked from the trash bin he had been rummaging through, backing away into the shadows as best as he could. There wasn't much cover for him to hide in so he took to eyeing his intruder warily, watching for any sign of aggression._

_It was a boy, a bigger boy than he was, who had light colored hair that prevented him from blending in with the darkness of the alley. However, this boy didn't seem to care as he stared the smaller boy down with these brilliant eyes whose color the smaller boy could not name._

"_You thrown out too?" the bigger boy asked, his hands stuffed confidently in his pockets._

_The smaller boy did not reply, not letting the other bigger boy out of his sight. Was he going to try and hurt him like all the big men did? Was he going to kick him? Hit him on the back of the head with a bottle?_

"_Ya can't stay out 'ere for'ver," the bigger boy said as he crouched down, looking into the trashcan that the smaller boy had been digging through. With a tsk, the bigger boy added, "I'd give ya three days tops. Ya won't find any'zing in 'ere ta eat. It all bad."_

_The boy hissed at the bigger boy. Though it didn't work all the time, he found that he was left alone by the big men who always said something about him being stupid. If anything, it worked better with other kids who would throw their hands up and leave._

"_I hate ta say dis but you're pretty pathetic," the bigger boy said. "N'ver saw anyone as sad lookin' as you."_

_The boy didn't really understand but for some reason, he felt as if he should be offended._

"_Ya know, if ya want ta eat, I can get ya some'zing but ya haveta come wit me," the bigger boy said. When he didn't move, the bigger boy frowned at him. "Do ya wanna die or some'zing?"_

_Slowly, he shook his head no and the bigger boy stood up from his crouch, taking a hand out of his pocket so that he could hold it out to him. The boy stared at the hand for a moment before slowly reaching out and taking it._

"_Zat's better," the bigger boy said as he pulled him up and onto his feet. Without letting go of his hand, the bigger boy began leading him out of the alley. For some reason, the smaller boy couldn't explain it but he felt like things were going to be okay now. He didn't know how things weren't okay before but right now, they were okay._

"_Ya have a name, kid?" the bigger boy asked. "E'ryone calls me Solo. How 'bout you?"_

He didn't know when it stopped or if it even had stopped or how much time had passed or if any had passed at all. All he knew was that Wallace was looking down at him, his face impassive as he studied him.

"How do you feel?" Wallace asked.

Lucky for him, he remembered how to spit.

Wallace calmly wiped the saliva off his face but he didn't seem to hold it against him at all.

"When I get out of this thing, I'm going to fucking kill you," Duo spat at the scientist, baring his teeth like he was an animal.

"Subject is displaying signs of aggression, irritability" Wallace commented, not at all phased at the death glare that was aimed at him. "Was there any pain? What did you feel?"

"I'm willing to give you a taste," Duo snarled breathlessly.

Without another word, Wallace pulled away leaving Duo to stare up at the ceiling with the same object from before reinserted into his mouth. He tried to get his bearings back, figure out what was going it. It was coming back to him, slowly but eventually, and he began to test out the strength of his restraints as best as he could.

Trying to figure out if he could reach his braid was tough going. He couldn't move his hand around much and with his head held still, he couldn't toss it around until he could grab the long rope of hair.

Something sounded like it powered up and—

* * *

><p>Wallace looked over from the monitor, peeking at the Gundam pilot that was experiencing multiple spasms. He wasn't surprised about it; what else would you expect if every part of your brain had electricity flowing through it? The overstimulation was being reflected through the Gundam pilot's body but Wallace was not concerned about it.<p>

They were getting valuable data out of this, both from a live subject in the MIRS and the information being copied by the computer. On the screen he was watching, he could see the various memories that were held in that pilot's head. To think they had only collected about ten percent of the information that the Gundam pilot possess and already he could see so many things that could further improve his next prototype.

"_That is the tenth time you've failed this simulation," _a man Wallace knew as Professor Samuel Gerald stated_. "I am beginning to wonder if you're cut out for this."_

"_Screw you, old man!" _the young Gundam pilotspat back as he tore himself out of the simulator. _"What's the importance of being able to pilot this damn thing underwater anyway?"_

"_Because you never know when you will be force off land,"_ Professor Gerald informed. _"Deathscythe will be the most formidable Mobile Suit on Earth. I want you to be able to use it no matter the terrain. Now get back in there and do it _again_."_

"_Fuckin' slavedriver,"_ the pilot shot back but did as he was told reluctantly.

Wallace watched as the memory shifted to another one, this one back on the poverty-stricken Colony that he had grown up on. It was a memory that was of no importance, just the pilot interacting with what resembled the current prototype. Solo he kept calling him. It was beginning to explain why this nuisance was so obsessed with the prototype that he had coincidentally codenamed Solo.

Perhaps the next one should be codenamed Duo, Wallace mused. It would be an honor for him, really. Having the world's first, fully functioning super soldier named after you was not something that should be dismissed.

"How much longer do you think he'll last?" Dr. Itsumi asked from beside him, one of the large syringes of Lyrithine in hand.

"Hard to say," Wallace said. "I'm surprised he isn't brain dead by now. Still, we'll give him a break in another minute, give him a breather. I don't want to risk damaging his brain."

"You've never cared about that before," Itsumi noted.

"Before we had corpses with no brain activity whatsoever," Wallace pointed out. "We have a living subject right now that does have brain activity. It's thrilling to see how this will turn out."

"What do I do about Solo?" Itsumi asked.

Wallace glanced over at the prototype with a bland look. "It would be best to ingrain the memory of Lyrithine withdrawal into it. For the next one, we'll plant those memories so that the thought of leaving willingly be abhorrent. In the meantime, give it small doses. Not enough to ease the symptoms but enough to stabilize. I want this one to really suffer before we put it out of its misery."

"Sadistic," Itsumi commented but didn't look repulsed by his decision. That's what Wallace liked about Itsumi; no matter his personal preferences, he always did what was needed to be done and followed instructions.

Itsumi left his side to administer to the prototype while Wallace remained at his post, watching the scene as another memory was loaded up.

"_Self-absorbed asshole,"_ the pilot grumbled as he left what looked like a docking bay. Not one that held ships Wallace noted as he saw what looked like Mobile Suits.

Of course, these Suits didn't look like the mass produced Leos, Taurus, and Aries that he was familiar with. None of those models had white paint jobs. No, those had to be the Gundams. There had also been someone else there, someone in a green tank top but the sight of him was cut off from the pilot looking away.

"_Don't see each other in how long? And where? Barge? No, it was the Lunar Base,"_ the pilot ranted to himself. _"Long time no see and he says nothing. Cold shoulder and everything. If I had half a mind, I'd…"_

The memory changed then and Wallace found himself a bit disappointed. They would have to keep this memory. It might be worthwhile to search for the other Gundam pilots and pool their experiences together. Perhaps another prototype would be codenamed Trio should be considered.

Though he wanted to see more, Wallace cut off the flow of electricity to give his restrained Gundam pilot his recovery time. He really did want to see the limits of how long the human body, while in a living condition, could withstand MIRS. If it was possible to survive, then resources spent creating more clones could be used for other tasks.

Due to paying too much attention to Duo Maxwell, Wallace did not heed Itsumi's gasp of surprise when he bent down to inject a small dose of Lyrithine into Solo. Using what strength he could muster, the blond grabbed Itsumi by the front of his coat and pulled him down. Due to the hum of MIRS, no one heard Solo break Itsumi's neck with a quick twist and snatch up the large syringe from the dead man's grasp.

Pausing only to examine the long needle, he plunged into his chest, the needle stabbing right into his heart.

A press of the plunger…

But Wallace did not heed any of that as he powered down the MIRS, giving his subject some breathing time. Another checkup of Mr. Maxwell was needed before they continued with another download. It was actually pretty exciting. Despite what the Gundam pilot had told Farrell, Wallace believed that there was more to the training to become one of these extraordinary pilots.

Who else could surpass the skills of a Mobile Doll? Men who had trained for years for combat were picked off like flies but here were these pilots who had gone beyond. Wallace was sure that the pilot was lying through his teeth; that was the only explanation for such advanced skills.

Before he could examine his latest scientific subject, he was brought up short when someone boomed, "FREEZE!"

Wallace spun on his heels, spotting the Preventer agents who shouldn't be here. How did they get here? When—what—they weren't supposed to be—!

"Nobody make a move!" the apparent leader, a young man with messy brown hair and the most piercing blue eyes…oh no, it couldn't be…

"Jaczynski's tool decides to leave the teat?" he taunted. "You chose the wrong time to mature. Kill them! All of them!"

His mercenaries obeyed readily, unleashing gun fire at the agent who immediately took cover. Wallace thought it best to follow their lead; it would be a death blow to Project Goliath and science itself if his life were to be cut off now.

"Don't let them hit the MIRS!" he roared at his men when a few bullets strained too close to the more important electronic equipment.

Suddenly he was jerked to a side and found himself facing a glowering prototype. Wallace marveled at the intensity in those green eyes and had to wonder why he had never seen them like that before. The hatred in those eyes were just paralyzing—

Air buffeted around him as he was thrown away like common garbage, his trajectory coming to a stop as his body smashed into a large piece of equipment that was essentially a series of interconnected computers and memory storage.

Excuse him for a moment while his brain recovered from this trauma-inducing action.

* * *

><p>When Duo cracked opened his eyes, it was not to that robotic like face of Wallace. It was almost déjà vu seeing the concern in oh so familiar green eyes as he was propped against the table that had bound him to a volunteered torture.<p>

The sound of gunfire and things blowing up pulled him out of stupor and reminded him just where he was.

"Can ya walk?" Solo demanded.

Duo blinked dumbly at the blond but reflexively bent his ankles and knees. Well, his legs worked but he might need a little help revving the engine here.

Not even looking away from him, Solo lifted an arm up and fired with a stolen machine gun at one of Wallace's men who had been aiming at them. "Talk ta me," Solo pressed.

It took Duo a minute before he remembered how to talk. He just felt so fried right now and he was struggling to retain only what he needed to get out of the mess they found themselves in.

"Crutch," he answered hoarsely.

Solo nodded and moved to get one of his arms over his broad shoulders. That was when something caught Duo sight and he rasped, "Wait."

"Not da time, Duo," Solo urged him.

"Bring that asshole over here," Duo ordered, his voice gaining strength. Seeing that he was looking dead at a dazed Wallace, Solo left his side only for a moment, dragging Wallace's form over to the braided one, ignoring the bullets whizzed through the air.

Meanwhile, Duo located the thing that had to have been put on his head earlier. So this is what MIRS looked like, eh? As Solo returned, Wallace in tow, Duo took over by shoving the wired headgear onto the scientist's head. Hitting Wallace up against the table, he stretched an arm out for Solo to take, the blond complying with the unspoken request.

As he helped Duo towards the nearest exit, Solo detoured towards MIRS' operating station and activated the system.

Duo glanced back once to see Wallace writhe in pain before they ducked out of the chaos.

They ignored the untouched computer monitor that revealed a scenic Earth neighborhood where two boys were playing, one claiming that he was going to be a famous general one day while the other pledged to make for him the greatest soldiers to ever walk the earth…

* * *

><p>Trowa followed the progress of Duo and the prototype as they managed to leave the room. By now, things were calming down as they mowed through Wallace's hired guns. He was glad that Duo was still alive, though what had led him to place himself onto that table remained a mystery.<p>

It had perturbed him when he saw the prototype tear the restrains holding his old comrade down and then gently lower him to the floor. When that strange-looking helmet had been removed, Trowa was quite shocked to see areas of hair that had been burned. What was that thing and why had Duo willingly agreed to have it put on?

The answers for those questions would have to wait until later. They had more pressing issues to deal with first.

"Heero, our fugitives have removed themselves," he reported.

"Follow them," Heero in turn ordered. "Don't let either of them out or your sights. First chance, apprehend them."

"Roger," Trowa said, darting out from his cover to chase at the fleeing duo. He hit a remaining gunman on his way out, closing the door behind him.

Little did he know that a few of his bullets had hit a swath of wires, cutting them. Nearby, a spasming old man stilled as MIRS shut down.

* * *

><p>After a few minutes of traversing through the fortress' hallways, Duo managed to regain enough strength to walk on his own.<p>

Once he could take a step without Solo propping him up, he had the two of them dart into the nearest doorway, not wanting either of them to be caught out in the open like they were. They needed some cover and being out in an open hallway was almost like an invitation for someone to take a shot at them.

While the door hissed closed behind them, Duo took in their surroundings, discovering that they had entered an enormous room. They were on a catwalk that suspended over endless rows of tanks, oversized tubes from which Duo recognized the design.

They had entered Wallace's manufacturing plant. Below them were hundreds upon hundreds of growing Solo clones, all of them waiting to be unleashed onto the world, eager for training and soon enough war.

Shaking his head, he gestured for Solo to follow after him. They were going to have to destroy this would-be army down there; in comparison to what Wallace wanted for them, what they would be giving them would be a mercy. Who knew how many would wind up like the freaks that had been sent after them earlier?

"Where ya takin' us now?" Solo asked. The accent in his voice hadn't left yet, Duo noticed, but what that was about, he did not know.

"Anything look familiar?" Duo said over his shoulder. "Got a lot of your brothers down there. What are the odds Wallace wants to use them to replace you?"

Unexpectedly, he stumbled but Solo managed to pull him back before he landed face first onto metal. His legs were wobbling for a moment, a spell of weakness hitting him, most likely a delayed aftereffect of MIRS.

"You all right?" Solo asked. Looking side to side as he used to do…er, as the old Solo used to do when he wanted to show him something that was supposed to be a secret, the blond unveiled a large syringe of Lyrithine. "I hate to put it out there but do ya think ya need a boost? Snagged this thing earlier."

"No," Duo said. "You need it more than me. Why haven't you—"

"Already did so," Solo answered, rubbing a hand over his chest. "Kinda feels like my heart is burning."

_The only thing that would reverse the withdrawal process would a larger amount of Lyrithine being injected straight into the heart._

Solo had heard that? Damn, Duo didn't know if he would have had the guts to inject that much Lyrithine into his own heart. It was a miracle that the blond hadn't keeled over by now.

Seeing movement over Solo's shoulder, Duo spotted Trowa creeping up behind them, his gun raised and aimed at Solo's head. Duo spun them around so that now he was between Trowa and Solo, pulling Solo down so that he was hunkered more behind him, making it harder for Trowa to get a bead on the blond.

Trowa didn't lower his weapon though Duo saw that the other ex-pilot weakened his trigger finger a bit. The fact remained though that Trowa was still willing to shoot and Duo tempered his response to the other.

"Hey," he greeted.

"How're you holding up?" Trowa asked in response.

"Not too bad," Duo replied.

"Are you sure? You have some nasty shock burns," Trowa commented. "Your hair is spotting some singe."

"I hadn't noticed," Duo replied. Silence fell for a moment and Duo felt the need to break it. "I see you got my message."

"It was unexpected," Trowa said. "I do think it will earn you some good will if you stand down now."

"Let me guess, we'll also make up some story to try and excuse my actions, right?" Duo guessed sarcastically.

"We can," Trowa nodded.

"What happens to Solo?" Duo asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Une sees him as a weapon," Trowa answered. Nothing more needed to be said.

"I won't let him be killed," Duo stated. "I don't care what happens to me so long as you don't harm him."

"You're really close, aren't you?" Trowa asked.

"Better believe it," Duo confirmed.

"I can't look the other way on this one," Trowa said. "And unlike last time, your friend won't be able to sneak up on me and damage my spinal cord."

"Shit," Duo cursed. "Now you're making feel guilty over Quatre."

"You should be," Trowa stated.

"I won't make excuses but I won't let you kill him," Duo declared. "The only way to Solo is over my dead body."

"Don't make me do this Duo," Trowa warned. "You know I'll do it."

"I know you will," Duo quipped. "You always seem to destroy the things I cherish most, like Deathscythe."

"You haven't gotten over that, have you?" Trowa queried.

"Why do you think I never let you near my car?" Duo shot back.

"Rocket!" Solo yelled as he began firing his gun.

Duo whipped his head side-to-side, spotting two of Wallace's men with a rocket launcher aimed right at them. Solo's bullets did nothing to stop them from firing, the missile blasting towards them with deadly intent.

"Fuck!" Duo swore as tried to shove Solo, trying to put some distance between them and the rocket. The projectile detonated the second it impacted the catwalk right between the three of them, shrapnel shooting in all direction out of the small explosion.

There was a loud groan and due to its age, the catwalk began to collapse as the three of them grabbed onto their respective sides. They smashed into several of the clone tanks, liquid splashing and flooding out as they were crushed under the catwalk's weight.

Lifting his head up slowly, Duo blinked at his new surroundings and found himself slightly drenched with liquid. A quick look around told him all he needed to know of where it came from.

There were so many Solos, all in various stages of development, some of which were already showing some deformities. Others, however, looked perfectly fine. Right next to him, he saw a tank that had a Solo that was identical to the Solo he had grown up with. No really, the Solo was in the same age range and everything. All of them were immersed in the blue-tinged, clear liquid that Duo began to notice staining the floor as well as being soaked up by his clothes.

Eww, he had Solo juice all over him.

The sound of footsteps splashing in the liquid reminded him that they were not alone. Snatching up Solo's gun, he fired a few controlled bursts, nailing the two assholes that had brought them down, heedless of whether or not the chemicals around them were flammable.

They weren't, if you were curious.

Looking down, Duo saw that he was straddling Solo who looked slightly uncomfortable at their position. Rolling his eyes, he grabbed the blond by the front of his shirt, grumbling, "Come on, we gotta move."

* * *

><p>Back at the lab, things had calmed down and by that, it meant the enemy combatants were all slain.<p>

Ordering a few agents to secure the area, Heero looked around the room, searching for any sign of Wallace. He had no idea where the man was but he knew that he couldn't be allowed to leave this fortress alive. If he was, he would have to be in Preventers' custody, no more, no less.

He was too dangerous to be allowed to roam Earth and Outer Space freely.

"Agent Night, have you found anything?" he asked, still searching the place.

"Over here," Wufei called out to him.

Breaking off his search, he headed towards Wufei who was standing over a prone form. Seeing that the man was in a labcoat and not in any military gear, Heero took a closer look. No question, it was Wallace. Crouching down, he removed the odd headgear and didn't bat an eyelash at the severe burns in his scalp.

Checking his pulse, he remarked, "Weak pulse. He's still alive."

"What happened to him?" Wufei wondered. Narrowing his eyes at the headgear, Wufei pointed out, "Wasn't that the same thing that was on Maxwell?"

"Possibly," Heero answered. "If so, that means he's wounded and wouldn't have gotten far. Trowa should have caught up with him and the prototype now. If we hurry, we will as well."

Turning towards an agent, he ordered the older man to keep an eye on Wallace while they went off to finish their game of cat and mouse with Duo.

Heero paid it no mind when he accidently kicked Wallace in the side as he followed after Wufei. No one noticed Wallace's eyes snap open and move towards the stationed agent who did not see his almost comatose form and had thus turned his back towards him…

* * *

><p>Trowa shook his head as he tried to focus on the matter at hand. The shock he had experienced from the sudden stop at the end of his fall was leaving slowly, perhaps a sign that he was getting too old for this?<p>

Nevertheless, he got a hold of himself just as he heard gunfire that lasted for maybe a second before it was all quiet. Then there were footsteps splashing away and Trowa knew he had to follow. He had a good idea as to who was fleeing and he had orders not to let that person out of his sights.

It was then he saw where he was and just what was around him. He was nearly mesmerizing at all the human forms that were suspended in liquid.

In this moment, he knew that he had at last found insanity in its purest form.

He needed to get his head back into the game; he could not afford to be distracted right now! He pushed himself off the segment of catwalk that he had clung to and chased after Duo.

Seeing that the prototype was not being blocked by his former comrade, Trowa raised his gun up and began firing just as his target took a sharp turn around a tank. His bullets still hit something, another tank whose glass shattered, unveiling the being within which began to choke as air entered its lungs.

Passing by, he shot the malformed being in the head, ending its life before it could really learn true suffering.

Back to the hunt, Trowa found himself weaving around the tanks, searching for his elusive quarry. They were around here somewhere, he knew it. Duo had probably figured out that the hunt was on and had entered stealth mode as the braided ex-pilot once dubbed it.

They couldn't go at this all day; Trowa needed to flush the two of them out and put an end to this thing. All the hours, the stress, everything was catching up with him. He was definitely going to use some of his vacation time so that he could unwind but in order to do that, he needed to capture Duo first.

The best way to flush him out, though, was to get him to talk.

"You can't avoid me forever, Duo," he called out, slipping around a tank, keeping an eye out for any sign of the fugitive. Duo didn't answer but that was to be expected; Trowa needed to find something that would get him to say something regardless of the circumstances. "What is that motto of yours? Running and hiding? You can't do that all the time; you'd have to be on alert all the time and your body can't handle that amount of stress for prolonged amounts of time."

Once again, nothing. Trowa shifted his eyes from side to side, not finding anything and becoming more and more anxious by the minute. The metal floor under his feet was now wet with the liquid from inside the tanks…and that gave him an idea.

Eyeing the tanks, he picked a few and fired his gun at them, shattering the tubes and unleashing the liquid from within. He made sure that he eliminated the clone inside each tank as he did so and waited for more of the floor to be covered.

Duo could hide his footsteps on dry land but even he would be hard pressed to do it when the floor was covered in this viscous substance. The downside was that it would also work against himself.

Reloading, Trowa did his best to try and move around while making the least amount of noise. He paused for a second, listening for any sound that might indicate where Duo and the prototype were.

"How do you think you'll keep this up?" he asked aloud. "Always on the run, having little time to take care of yourself. In fact, you'd have trouble caring for yourself but if you're also looking out for the clone, it's going to make it that much harder."

"You know I hate it when you're right," Duo called back in answer.

Slowly, Trowa turned towards the general direction he had heard Duo speak from. Okay, he had gotten him to talk. Now to keep him talking.

"I'm only stating the truth," he stated as he began moving towards where he last heard Duo.

"The only thing I have to look forward to is going to prison if I let you catch me," Duo replied and Trowa paused. Duo was moving and from the sound…he was heading that way. Trowa adjusted and continued stalking. "Who knows what you guys will do with Solo? What did Une say about it anyway? Bet'cha it was something about killing him, wasn't it?"

He certainly hit the hammer on the nail on that one. "He's considered an illegal weapon," he admitted. "But we also know about the Lyrithine. That too is illegal and he'll need it just to survive. How do you think you'll be able to keep him alive? Without a constant, steady supply, he'll die. At least this way, it will be quicker."

"Look around you!" Duo exclaimed. Okay, he had changed directions. He was over there; was mostly likely moving while he was talking. "You got all these Solos; you can have them all, just let me have this one!"

"I'm sorry Duo. This is the way it's gotta be," he answered. He destroyed a couple more tanks, aiming for ones that were further away than those that were closer to him.

There was no answer from Duo which could have meant one of two things. Either he had no reply or he was standing in the liquid from the tanks and didn't want to give his position away.

"Maxwell, there's no way out of here!" Wufei called out after a moment of tense silence. Ah, so they had caught up with them. This severely cut the chances of either Duo, the prototype, or both escaping. Trowa could see the glint of Heero's reflection against one of the clone tanks before he vanished from sight.

Yes, they were closing in.

* * *

><p>Shit, shit, shit!<p>

They were being corralled. By now, Duo knew that the other three ex-pilots were in the room and that it was only a matter of until…

Focus Duo! You've been through worse circumstances before! You got out of them peachy keen and you could do the same here! Sure he did have Solo here with him so that made things a bit more challenging but damn it, he wasn't going to give up!

He made a promise to Solo and by whatever God was out there, be you the God that Father Maxwell and Sister Helen believed in or the God of Death, he was not going to break it unless he was as cold as the metal that made up this fortress.

Duo had to hand it to Trowa; breaking all those tanks had been clever. He knew how to walk on metal surfaces without making a clinking sound but liquids were a problem for anyone. That went double when you wanted to keep hidden.

And let's not forget, all these tanks here did not give a lot of open space. That and it made it harder to see if one of the guys hunting them were closed by. The glass that made up the tanks and the liquid it held, along with the clone, distorted things. The fact no one had found his reflection yet had been miraculous but his luck was running out quickly.

Carefully, he moved a foot up, over, and back into the chemicals that puddled on the floor, being absolutely careful that he didn't make a sound. This was tense, really tense and he was on the verge of saying fuck it and trying to make a run for it.

For all he knew, the exits could be blocked off by Preventers so even if he did try to run, he'd get caught. He could see Solo down a few rows, luckily not standing in any of the liquid but the blond was waiting for him to catch up. Solo hadn't taken a shot at the other guys but that was because Duo had insisted on not killing or harming any of them.

As much as he didn't like them, there was still some kind of kinship between them. Damn it, he was going soft. Two years of staying as far away from them as he could was going down the drain along with his future.

And he still felt a little guilt over Quatre. Not that he would admit it to anyone.

"It's over Duo." Oh, he knew that voice and it was really easy to muster up some anger. A sharp glare was directed towards Heero Yuy who had him dead in his sights. One move, any move, and Heero would get him. It was almost like a reversal of their first meeting except no one had been shot yet.

Keyword being yet.

"Don't even think of trying anything," Heero warned. "No more games. You're under arrest."

"The only arrest I'd allow is cardiac," Duo spat at him. Oh yes, there was quite some venom in his words. All he needed to remember was _someone_ raiding his precious Gundam for parts and sucker punching him in the gut. Oh boy, he had not forgotten those, not by a long shot.

"You would do that to spite us," Wufei replied, appearing from another angle with his gun also trained on him. "Where is the prototype, Maxwell?"

"I forget, do I have the right to remain silent?" he asked sarcastically. "If so, I'd like to exercise that right."

"Now is not the time for this!" Wufei growled. Heh, he could still get under his skin…

"I hope you have been enjoying your little game down there," the unmistakable voice of Wallace bellowed from above. Jerking his head upwards, Duo caught a glimpse of the old man standing at the edge of the ruined catwalk, a detonator in hand. "Fun time is over."

All he could wonder for that instant was how the hell that asshole was still alive.

And then the ceiling exploded.

In hindsight, it should have been obvious that this place was rigged. If these guys needed to cover their tracks and couldn't move everything, it was better to destroy it all so long as you had all the files backed up.

Duo was only thankful that this _deus ex machina_ distracted the other pilots who were heading for cover, allowing him the chance to try to find some himself as well as put some space between them. As was intended, the ceiling caved in due to the detonated explosives, large chunks of metal smashing into countless tanks and destroying them.

Knowing that the guys would be trying to avoid the metallic debris, Duo ran with all he had. He managed to put several yards between him and them but then he experienced something only little kids at a swimming pool were known to do.

Thanks to all the fluids on the floor, the slickness carried one of his steps too far and when he tried to regain his balance he…

Okay, okay, he slipped. The light-footed stealth expert fucking slipped on a slick surface. Whoopdie freakin' hoo

An explosion overhead sounded ominous to his ears and he had barely lifted his head up just as something very large landed where the important limb had once lain, cutting him off from the other pilots. Duo was unfazed, though; he had had closer calls than that those was real close.

A sharp tug on the back of his head stopped him from getting back onto his feet.

Glancing around, Duo thought up of every swear he knew and then some as he saw part of his braid was currently trapped under the metal debris behind him. When tugging didn't work to free it, Duo awkwardly pushed himself against the obstruction, his head forced to tilt to a side, and tried to lift it with all his might. Didn't even budge it.

Goddamn it, if he was going to have to cut off his braid…no, absolutely out of the question. No way.

A presence right next to him had him looking away from his braid problem and almost sagging in relief. Why did it not surprise him that whenever he was in a bind, Solo would come to his rescue?

"Careful with the hair," he said as the blond reached to grab it. Funny how they could be in a life and death situation and the first thing he thought of was taking care of that braid.

"I think I'll need ta cut it," Solo said, his voice a combination of the streetrat Solo and the prototype Solo.

"What?" Duo practically screamed. "Can't you just pull it out?"

"It'll rip anyway," Solo replied. "Thought I'd tell ya before I did it."

"Rip it and you're a dead man," Duo swore at the blond, giving a full out death glare. Nodding to the debris, he suggested, "Lift this damn thing if ya can."

Rolling his eyes the same way the first Solo would, the blond braced himself against the large piece of metal, readying himself for the strain he was about to put himself under.

The sharp crack of a gunshot—

—blood splattered on the debris—

—the syringe of Lyrithine falling out and rolling up against him and only a few feet away stood Wallace.

All these occurrences were instantaneous in Duo's mind as Solo slumped against the debris, clutching at his shoulder where the bullet had penetrated. Idly, Duo recalled being shot there recently.

His eyes glared murder at the scientist who had definitely seen better days. Duo only had to look at the bastard to know that Wallace had little experience using a gun; his hand was not that steady which suggested his aim was poor. It was only because of that that Solo didn't have a bullet in his brain instead.

Unless Wallace was dead set on salvaging whatever he could…

Duo placed his hands on the liquid-covered floor and started to push himself up but stopped as soon as his braid tugged back. Damn, he couldn't sit up straight.

"Well?" Duo spat, glaring at Wallace who was in the prime position to kill him. "What the fuck are you waiting for?" He could feel Solo's eyes on him, wondering why he was daring to egg Wallace on.

"I have spent the past thirty years of my life on this," Wallace stated as he began moving closer to them, each step taken careful and deliberate. "In less than thirty minutes, you have nearly annihilated everything I have worked so hard to do. I'm sorry, I'm usually more composed than this. Seems like there was an unforeseen side effect of the MIRS."

Duo continued to eye Wallace as if the man was a ticking time bomb ready to blow at any minute. The bastard's body language had changed dramatically, like he was about to lose his mind at any second but at the same time in control.

A volatile combination.

"The file on you was still open when I was downloaded," Wallace continued, unable to stop himself from talking, "and in order for MIRS to read a person's mind, it has to be on the same wavelength, so to speak." Oh yeah, something was going down in Wallace's head. He was using less fancy vocabulary. "As a result, some of you was leaked into me. But that's okay; I suddenly see the world differently. There's so many different ways to go about making the next level of super soldiers now.

"But there's also one more thing I got from you. I have an insatiable desire for revenge now. Revenge for destroying my life's work. That's why I didn't activate the explosives in the floor. I wanted to see the life go out of your eyes as I kill you."

"Wow, never knew you were the type to do things yourself," Duo taunted, moving his hand until it unintentionally met the syringe of Lyrithine. "Don't you usually send other people to do your dirty work?"

"Then I suppose I'll make true the phrase 'if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself'," Wallace sneered, no longer his cold, clinical self anymore. The scientist passed by Duo's feet, bending his knees as he aimed his gun right at Duo's chest. Duo recognized the weapon to be a Preventers' issued one, making him wonder if whoever Wallace had taken it from was still alive.

"Sound advice, Doc," Duo drawled just as Solo shot a hand out and grabbed the gun barrel, squeezing and crushing it with his usual ease. Wallace took his gaze off Duo to marvel at the unexpected intervention. Duo, meanwhile, snatched up the syringe and stabbed it right into Wallace's chest, the needle piercing right into the man's heart. With his other hand, Duo rammed his palm into the syringe's plunger and injected the whole load of Lyrithine right into Wallace. "But I think you need to lighten up."

Wallace pulled away as he clutched at his chest, gasping loudly as if he was having trouble breathing. Solo may have been able to take that much Lyrithine into his heart but that was because the blond had been taking the drug long before he had been released from his tank and had developed a high tolerance for it. Wallace, on the other hand, had never touched a drop of it in his life.

Wallace heaved, his back arching in agony as his torso practically began thumping, each jerk he made becoming harsher and harsher until his heart exploded out from his chest. Blood splattered on anything it could touch and Wallace looked down at where his heart had once been before, like the titan he had tried to create, he fell.

He came to a rest on his side, his eyes wide open as if asking how things had gone so wrong…

Duo wiped away the blood that had sprinkled onto his face, turning towards Solo who couldn't take his eyes off the man that had dominated almost the entirety of his life.

"Solo," he said, trying to command the blond's attention. "Solo!"

Green eyes looked away from the cooling corpse and turned to him. Reaching out with an arm, Duo placed a hand on the blond's shoulder, taking care not to aggravate the wound.

"Want to get out of here?" Duo asked.

A nod and then Solo was looking back at the trapped braid. "I haveta tear it."

"Don't you dare," Duo warned. "Move this fuckin' thing! Don't touch the braid!"

"Shoulder wound; can't put too much strain on it," Solo said as grasped the braid. "Don't let yer past rule you Kid."

"But I don't want to leave it," Duo said softly as he closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable.


	21. Chapter 21

Author's Note: The final chapter for this story and man has it been a ride. If I'm disappointing anyone with this ending, well, I like my endings open-ended. You get the choice to decide what comes next. A little secret for you readers, many of these chapters had been written weeks in advance for the sole purpose of continuous updates in case I got writer's block, which I did at one point. Those of you who paid attention also may have noticed that I always updated every six days. It's how I roll.

There was stuff I wanted to do with this storyline that I didn't do but I think Project Goliath was better off without it. For example, when I started writing this story, I had planned to put some romance in it, get some of my female readers squealing. However, as I reached a point, I realized that that element wouldn't have fit in with the narrative, especially with the way I had written things. So I left it out and I think it works better without it. Anyway, got a couple more comments at the end of the story but I'll let you read the chapter first.

One more thing, as is my tradition, I'd like to thank ShadowMajin, ani, Annoying Little Twit, Ashamtly, and Hellcat81 for all the reviews they left. A special thanks goes out to Hellcat81 and the reviewer known as wraith for mentioning major corrections I needed to make whether they involved character's reactions to continuity. And, important announcement, Ashamtly is translating Project Goliath into Spanish. She should be posting sometime next week so if any of you out there can read Spanish and would like to re-experience Project Goliath, there you go. For the rest of you, enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Warning: language

Chapter 21

Screens and monitors continuously showed the images of Fortress Sigma surrounded by Preventers spacecraft. If that wasn't a sign that the space fortress had been secured, the man observing didn't know what was.

But he wasn't bothered by it. No, he was more curious about it.

By now the Preventers should be figuring out just the extent of Project Goliath but what they wouldn't find out was just who was paying the bills for it. It didn't matter how hard they tried; they could find all the financial accounts that were kept but they would never find the source of where all that capital came from.

Secrecy was his mask, anonymity his weapon of choice. He had spent years covering his tracks, so much so that it was second nature to him and those who worked closely with him.

When he had first learned about Project Goliath, he had been quite interested in the concept of human weapons. Human beings who were grown like crops and given only the knowledge of how to fight and kill sounded like quite the investment to him and if it had fulfilled its promises, the payoff would have been enormous if not astronomical.

Too bad it was over now. What was it that they say in these cases? C'est le vie? That sounded about right.

If he had been a legitimate businessman, he supposed that he would have had to step down from his position in disgrace at the amount of money he had put into Wallace's pet project in return for so little compensation. Then again how legitimate could an armsdealer be?

Weapons were his trade and thanks to the policies of ESUN, his goods were now illegal. As if laws had ever stopped anyone from doing anything before. If a person wanted a gun, they would get a gun. Where he came in was to ensure that the gun a person purchased was his and no one else's.

That was how he managed to create his extensive yet invisible criminal empire. It was armsdealing, who would cry foul over his business practices? If they did, they would only implicate themselves in the trade and so had to keep quiet while he consumed them.

After years of operation, he had a virtual monopoly of the armstrade and no one was the wiser.

Preventers. Pah! As much as they tried to police, they had no idea of how extensive the underworld truly was. They were more concerned with rebels, terrorists, and the occasional corrupt politician that they blinded themselves to the other darker elements of human society.

Well, far be it for him to change that perception. If it aided him in his business, he was in no hurry to tear off the veil of ignorance.

Still, it was really a shame that Project Goliath hadn't paid off. He had been looking forward to laying his eyes on the next generation of weapons. It was nothing but a pipe dream now but before he shoved this little disaster aside, he needed to check up on some things.

"Have we recovered any of the soldiers we sent?" he asked to a very large man who also gazed at the monitors dispassionately.

"They were instructed to fight to the death if something like this occurred," the man answered him. "They should all be dead by now if they haven't stopped fighting."

"So any information they have on me will go with them to the grave," he concluded. "Who says that loyalty can't be bought?"

"Our electronic signature was erased seconds after every monetary transaction," the large assistant continued. "The Preventers will continue to investigate where Wallace's financial backing came from but will be led to staged patsies if they manage to penetrate too far. I doubt they'll ever figure out it was us who helped set up Fortress Sigma for Wallace's purposes."

"Very good news, Malkov," he praised. "And the dummy accounts?"

"Deleted and erased," Malkov answered. "If they get past the patsies, the money trails will stop at empty cyberspace."

"Hmm, better make sure it leads to something," the man thought aloud. "Perhaps one of those X-rated sites? If anything, it'll provide a laugh when or if they go that far. They'll automatically think the site is a front and spend countless man hours investigating it while our trail grows colder by the minute."

"What about Wallace?" Malkov asked.

"We may not have met face to face but the fact he has an inkling of my existence is concerning," he said thoughtfully. "If he isn't dead, kill him."

"What about what we recovered from his files?" Malkov asked.

"Those lab reports and articles?" he sneered. "Store them somewhere; they might come in handy in the remote possibility I might want to restart Goliath. Wallace has done all the hard work for me; I can't just let such scientific knowledge be destroyed. If there is nothing else, Malkov, you may take your leave."

"As you wish, Mr. Xavien."

* * *

><p>Heero sat stoically in his seat, his eyes trained on Director Une, waiting for her to speak to him. She had been reading through all his reports as well as the summaries that the technicians had managed to devise from the countless files that Wallace had kept. There had been so much information recovered from Fortress Sigma that they were still going through it all.<p>

These were just the preliminary reports; in the days to come there was going to be a lot more.

As for this moment, Heero was alone. Wufei was still on Sigma, overseeing the collection and preservation of evidence. Quatre was not allowed to fly on a shuttle until his doctors were sure that his neck wouldn't sustain further injury. Trowa had called ahead to inform him that he was going to use some of his vacation days. Where he was going, he had only ideas but nothing concrete.

"How many did you manage to arrest?" Une asked him, looking up from the endless collection of documents.

"Most of the non-combatants," Heero answered.

"What about those who were combatants?" Une pressed.

"They refused to surrender and we had to fight them down to the last man," he informed her. "Some of the deaths were peculiar; there were signs of suicide among many of them. We have yet to determine the reason why."

"The man in charge, Derrick Wallace," Une prompted. "I am assuming that he wasn't apprehended."

"That is a correct assumption."

"How did he die?"

"The autopsy hasn't come back in yet but from what I saw, it looked like his heart exploded out of his chest."

"What a way to go. An elaborate end to the life of a man who had been a student and colleague of one of the five creators of the Gundams," Une commented. "We've managed to dig up some information about him but he went underground years ago, back during the rule of the Alliance. There has been no information of his doings during that time outside of what has been collected from the bases he was using."

"Is there anything else?" Heero asked. He wanted to get this debriefing over with and not talk shop.

"What did you do about the clones?" Une asked, getting his hint.

"As per your instructions, they were considered illegal arms and destroyed," Heero said.

Une hmmed but said nothing more for a moment. Finally, as if she had been working herself up for this specific question, she asked, "What about Duo Maxwell? Were you able to capture him?"

Ah, a question that Heero hadn't been looking forward to either. "There has been no sign of him on Sigma with one exception. It has not been determined if he has left and if so, how he managed to get off."

"What was the exception?" Une asked curiously.

"We found his braid near Wallace's body," Heero said. "There was also blood but the DNA does not match his."

"So he's still on the run," Une mused as she sat back in her seat, looking thoughtful.

"What should we do?" Heero asked. "Should we continue to search for him? Consider him still a fugitive?"

"No one is above the law, not even a Gundam pilot," Une stated. "However, he did inform us about where Wallace would be and allowed all this to happen. At the same time, he has harbored and protected an illegal weapon."

"There's no way to know if the prototype was among those that we destroyed," Heero pointed out. "There's still a chance that it is still out there and that Duo is still protecting it."

"But the prototype is also dependent on Lyrithine to live," Une added. "Without it, the prototype will enter a lethal withdrawal so one way or another, Project Goliath is shut down."

"Duo could still get his hands on the drug," Heero pointed out. "Lyrithine can still be found on the black market and then there are the dealers who peddle it out. If he wanted to, he can still get it."

"All those transactions are done in cash so we wouldn't be able to trace him through it anyway," Une said. "Without his braid, the most recognizable feature of Pilot 02 will be of no help in identifying him."

"So what do you plan to do?" Heero asked. "Do you want to let him off the hook or do you want to bring him in?"

"I will need some time to think about it," Une said after some thought. "I'll let you know what we'll do in the morning."

"Any trail he may have left will just get colder if you wait," Heero warned.

"Even when his trail wasn't cold, we still had problems trying to capture him," Une replied. "Giving the word to continue the chase tomorrow will have the same amount of effect as doing it now. Since that is the case, I will give you my decision tomorrow.

"But Duo's trail isn't the only one we should be concerned with. From the financial records Wallace kept, someone has been funding Goliath. I want to know just who it is and make sure they pay for their involvement. Come up with some names for me while you wait. Dismissed."

Heero nodded and left his seat and from there the office. He had no idea of what Une was going to do but until he received news of her decision, he would not do anything to locate Duo's whereabouts.

Consider it a courtesy from one comrade to another.

* * *

><p>"You know, I think I might take a page out of your book," Quatre said into the receiver all the while looking straight at the image of Trowa on the vidphone. "After all that's happened, a break does sound good."<p>

"_I'm sure you've informed Une about your plans,"_ Trowa commented.

"I'm already taking sick days," Quatre shrugged. "I'm expected to be off-duty and if anyone complains, they can talk to my doctors."

"_When will they arrive?"_ Trowa asked.

"Well, the ones my sisters recommended should be here in the next hour or so," Quatre answered after a second's worth of thought. "Specialists, all of them. Much better than anything Une could supply."

"_I'm surprised you didn't request for them sooner,"_ Trowa said.

"That was when we knew Duo was close by and that there was someone else after him," Quatre said. "To be honest, I think my sisters would have requested I be shipped back to our home Colony. That would have meant I'd be out of the loop and I didn't want that."

"_But why now?"_ Trowa asked. _"Duo hasn't been caught yet."_

"I don't know, after what happened at Sigma it feels like this whole thing is over with," Quatre confessed. "We caught the bad guys, put an end to their plans…"

"_All except for the person who funded it,"_ Trowa finished.

"I have confidence we'll find who it is," Quatre stated assuredly. "It's only a matter of time. But enough about that, what are you planning?"

"_What I always do when I take a leave,"_ Trowa answered, the corners of his mouth curving upward in s small smile.

"Catherine," Quatre said.

"_Catherine,"_ Trowa agreed. Nothing more needed to be said after that. Quatre knew what the circus worker meant to his fellow pilot and that nothing else needed to be said about it. _"What about yourself? What will you be doing?"_ Trowa asked.

"Go home, maybe do some work for the company," Quatre sighed thoughtfully. "I think I'll try to work something out with Une. It's needless to say that I have some leverage with my neck; I want to be sure it's fully healed before I go back into the field."

"_That's smart,"_ Trowa said. _"Injuring yourself further would only make it worse; the risk just isn't worth it."_

"That's what I thought," Quatre smiled softly. "I know I may be young but I don't think it's too early to start worrying about my health. Once you lose it, it's hard to get back."

"_You're never too young for that,"_ Trowa agreed. _"You should also keep your mental health in mind too. Stress can be just as harmful as a bullet if you don't take steps to manage it. If you're going to be doing some work for your family's company…it makes me concerned."_

"I'll keep that all in mind," Quatre promised.

"_Are you really okay?"_ Trowa asked, apparently deciding to end the small talk. _"This thing with Duo, how are you holding up on that? I know the two of you were close, used to be close at least."_

"Other than feeling like I've lost one of my best friends?" Quatre asked rhetorically with no little sarcasm. "I…I don't know how to feel about it anymore. After everything, all the secrets, all the choices…the only thing that I didn't get an answer for…for a question that's really important to me. Why did Duo care about that clone so much? When I last saw him, the way he behaved with him, Duo was attached. Why? What did that clone mean to him?"

"_It was something important to him, something that he was willing to defy us, Une, risk losing his freedom…"_ Trowa ticked off. _"I saw him at Sigma; he was still trying to protect that prototype. He wouldn't let me get a shot off and dared me to shoot him."_

"Unless Duo tells us, if he ever does want to talk with us, we'll never know for sure," Quatre sighed.

"_That's if he's still alive,"_ Trowa pointed out. _"When that room was destroyed, one of the explosions could have killed him."_

"But you found his braid," Quatre argued. "He cut it off, he had to cut it off. We know how sensitive he was about it."

"_You're worried that he might be suicidal over hair?"_ Trowa asked. _"I've always had the impression that if it was a matter of life or death and to live, he would have to cut his braid off, Duo would cut it off. He's a survivor. But what we don't know is what kind of injuries he may have had. Just because we haven't found his body doesn't mean that he isn't dead."_

"I refuse to believe that until I see the body," Quatre stated. "Until then, I know in my heart that he's alive…out there…avoiding us."

"_If that's what you believe then that's what you believe,"_ Trowa said. _"If he does contact us, then we'll know for sure. Seeing as how things were when this started, we may never hear from him again."_

"That's the one thing I fear will happen," Quatre sighed. "Thank you for talking with me Trowa. I really needed to talk with someone."

"_Anytime Quatre."_ With that, Trowa hung up and his image on the vidphone went out, leaving Quatre all to himself and his thoughts.

* * *

><p>Hilde had stopped counting the days since Duo left with Solo and those men. She knew that Duo wouldn't stay away for too long. He'd wait until the heat was down before he made any attempt to contact her. That was how he worked and she knew that so long as he was alive, it was only a matter of time.<p>

The uncertainty, though, was a bitch. But that's how he always left; there was always this air of uncertainty that settled in after he left.

She never knew if and when he was coming back and her fear was that one day he would leave and then never come back.

There was a new variable in all this. Solo. The fact that Duo was willing to risk his life for the mysterious blond spoke volumes to the scrapyard owner. The guy seemed nice if not socially awkward. She was still waiting for the story behind all this and no one had done anything to tell her what had been going on.

She was still in the dark, knowing just as much as she did when she had been pulled into this mess as she did now. She also had the feeling that no one was going to make an effort to explain any of it to her.

She had bigger problems than knowing the whereabouts of Duo or getting involved into some botched covert operation. She still had a scrapyard to run here; money wasn't going to grow from a tree and relieve her of her financial responsibilities.

Nope, Hilde still had to work and keep out creeps that tried to steal from the yard. At the very least, she had invested in some "illegal" guns to keep her place safe.

What can you say about the Cluster? If all humanity renounced guns, you would still be able to find them here and in plentiful amounts.

And life goes on.

So what did she have now outside of strengthened security measures? Well, she was lonely but ever since Duo had to leave to work with the Preventers on Earth, she had remained lonely. It was just now she had no idea of where Duo was or how to contact him. Yes, she had tried sending an innocent message to _DragQueenS2_ but so far she had received no response.

For this fine "morning" Hilde was going about opening shop for the day. It was amazing how people conformed their lives to a rate of time that didn't really apply here. It wasn't like the Colony was spinning on an axis though it was orbiting Earth to a degree.

Regardless of time and whatnot, that meant nothing to someone opening up to the swarming masses that weren't really fighting to get in. It was just another day in the grind, doing your best to make ends meet and just live your life in a very tough place.

Did she mention that it was lonely? It was lonely.

A buzz on the com brought her out of her thoughts, alerting her to the fact that she had a potential customer.

She opened the gate enough to let a car in, waited about five seconds then closed it. She checked to make sure that her gun was nearby and the safety was off, just in the off chance that someone else had a beef with her and wanted to put her six feet under.

After last time, she wasn't taking chances.

There was a knock on the office door and after yelling out for whoever it was to come in, Hilde remembered that the door was locked, a precaution so that no one would barge in and start shooting without asking any questions first. She was going to have to get up and let them in herself.

It was hard adjusting to these new, self-imposed protocols.

Taking her gun with her, Hilde, strolled to the door, unlocking it, then as an afterthought, opened it up. The least she could do was be courteous to her would-be buyer.

As soon as she got a good look at who was on the other side of her door, instead of freezing up in surprise, she huffed and spoke a demand.

"Do you know how long I've been waiting for you to show up?"

* * *

><p>Author's Note: A bit of a cop out bringing back Xavien and Malkov, a couple of OCs who've been in a number of my stories, but I couldn't think of anyone who could have willingly gotten involved with Project Goliath and wasn't dead. I'd have to make someone new up, most likely, for the mysterious funder of Project Goliath and I didn't want to do that. So about chapter 17 or 18, I decided to say why not and started the buildup to Xavien's reveal. Also, I had the idea of making Project Goliath a quasi-prequel to <em>The DeathdealerThe Eternal Encore_. If you see Solo dead, you can move onto either of those two stories and continue onto more Gundam Wing reading. If he's still alive, then the fics previously mention don't happen. It's a make your own ending kinda deal here.

I have another idea for an action story in the Gundam Wing fandom so I won't be gone for long. Keep an eye out for it but don't expect it in the next couple of weeks. Still in the planning stages and everything. Until next time.


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